United States v. Steve Williams

USCA11 Case: 22-11490 Document: 40-1 Date Filed: 01/17/2023 Page: 1 of 7
[DO NOT PUBLISH]
In the
United States Court of Appeals
For the Eleventh Circuit
____________________
No. 22-11490
Non-Argument Calendar
____________________
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
Plaintiff-Appellee,
versus
STEVE WILLIAMS,
Defendant-Appellant.
____________________
Appeal from the United States District Court
for the Middle District of Florida
D.C. Docket No. 8:96-cr-00318-TPB-1
____________________
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2 Opinion of the Court 22-11490
Before JORDAN, BRANCH, and BRASHER, Circuit Judges.
PER CURIAM:
Steve Williams, a former federal prisoner represented by
counsel, appeals the district court’s denial of his petition for a writ
of error coram nobis, 28 U.S.C. § 1651(a). The government, in turn,
has moved for summary affirmance and to stay the briefing sched-
ule.
I.
Williams was charged in 1996 with one count of knowingly
and intentionally using a communication facility to facilitate a con-
spiracy to possess with the intent to distribute marijuana, in viola-
tion of 21 U.S.C. § 843(b). He later agreed, through counsel, to
plead guilty pursuant to a written agreement. The district court
sentenced Williams to 5 months’ imprisonment followed by 36
months’ supervised release. The court entered a final judgment to
this effect in 1997. Williams did not appeal or seek post-conviction
relief under 28 U.S.C. § 2255. He served his sentence and dis-
charged his term of supervised release.
In March 2022, Williams, represented by new counsel, filed
the present petition for a writ of error coram nobis, pursuant to 28
U.S.C. § 1651(a), and challenged the validity of his 1997 conviction.
Williams asserted that he was entitled to post-conviction relief be-
cause his trial counsel did not advise him of a viable entrapment
defense before he agreed to plead guilty. He asserted that his trial
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22-11490 Opinion of the Court 3
counsel had been ineffective for not pursuing an entrapment de-
fense because he had told counsel of the facts underlying the po-
tential defense. And, he asserted, if he had not pleaded guilty, he
would have been acquitted at trial. He further asserted that his trial
counsel failed to inform him that he would “automatically lose his
constitutional right to ‘keep and bear arms’” and “to participate in
the political process by voting in elections” as a result of his plea.
He reiterated that if he had been informed of these rights, he would
not have pleaded guilty, and “the result would have been differ-
ent.”
In attempting to excuse his failure to file a motion for post-
conviction relief under Section 2255 and his 20-year delay in filing
a petition for writ of coram nobis, Williams argued that he should
have been appointed counsel to file such a post-conviction motion.
Specifically, Williams argued that Martinez v. Ryan, 566 U.S. 1(2012), provides an avenue for a federal court to “hear and rule
upon the merit [of] substantial claims of ineffective assistance of
counsel, notwithstanding any Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death
Penalty Act [(“AEDPA”)]; time limitations . . . or [s]tate [c]ourt
procedural bars, where the [p]etitioner had no lawyer to do his first
post-conviction relief motion, or if counsel in such capacity pro-
vided ineffective assistance.”
The district court denied Williams’s petition. The court rea-
soned that a writ of error coram nobis was an “extraordinary” rem-
edy of last resort which could only issue where there is and was no
other available avenue of relief to correct a fundamental error that
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4 Opinion of the Court 22-11490
rendered the proceeding itself irregular and invalid. But here, the
court explained, Williams could have pursued relief under 28
U.S.C. § 2255 and failed to do so. The court also noted that Wil-
liams failed to explain the more than twenty-five-year delay be-
tween pleading guilty in 1996 and filing the petition in 2022. 1
On appeal, Williams argues that the district court improp-
erly denied his petition for error coram nobis relief. Rather than
filing a response, the government has moved for summary affir-
mance. It argues that the district court did not err in denying Wil-
liams’s petition because Williams could have raised his ineffective
assistance claim in a Section 2255 motion any time between his
guilty plea and his release from custody. It also contends that Wil-
liams failed to establish any sound reason for his delay in seeking
relief and that Williams never sought to obtain appointed post-con-
viction counsel in the district court.
II.
We review a district court’s denial of a petition for writ of
error coram nobis for an abuse of discretion. Alikhani v. United
States, 200 F.3d 732, 734 (11th Cir. 2000). Summary disposition is
1 Williams moved the district court to reconsider its ruling, without success.
On appeal, he does not specifically challenge the denial of that motion. Ac-
cordingly, any issue in this respect is forfeited. Sapuppo v. Allstate Floridian
Ins. Co., 739 F.3d 678, 680-81 (11th Cir. 2014) (“A party can abandon an issue
on appeal by failing to ‘plainly and prominently’ address it in his opening
brief.”).
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22-11490 Opinion of the Court 5
appropriate, in part, where “the position of one of the parties is
clearly right as a matter of law so that there can be no substantial
question as to the outcome of the case . . . .” Groendyke Transp.,
Inc. v. Davis, 406 F.2d 1158, 1162 (5th Cir. 1969). A motion for sum-
mary affirmance shall postpone the due date for the filing of any
remaining brief until we rule on such motion. 11th Cir. R. 31-1(c).
III.
A writ of error coram nobis offers a remedy “to vacate a con-
viction when the petitioner has served his sentence and is no longer
in custody, as is required for post-conviction relief under 28 U.S.C.
§ 2255.” United States v. Peter, 310 F.3d 709, 712 (11th Cir. 2002).
The writ, however, may issue only when (1) “there is and was no
other available avenue of relief,” and (2) “the error involves a mat-
ter of fact of the most fundamental character which has not been
put in issue or passed upon and which renders the proceeding itself
irregular and invalid.” Alikhani, 200 F.3d at 734 (emphasis added).
Moreover, a district court may consider a coram nobis petition
only where the petitioner presents sound reasons for failing to seek
relief earlier. United States v. Morgan, 346 U.S. 502, 512 (1954).
We cannot say the district court abused its discretion in
denying the petition for a writ of coram nobis. Williams does not
challenge the district court’s conclusion that he could have raised
his trial counsel’s ineffective assistance by filing a Section 2255 pe-
tition while he was still in custody. And Williams did not explain
when he became aware of his counsel’s ineffectiveness or whether
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6 Opinion of the Court 22-11490
such a discovery justified the delay in petitioning for a writ of co-
ram nobis. Accordingly, even if his trial counsel’s ineffective assis-
tance could rise to the level of an error of “the most fundamental
character,” Alikhani, 200 F.3d at 734, the district court did not err
in denying his petition as untimely.
Williams cites Martinez to excuse his failure to raise his trial
counsel’s alleged ineffectiveness earlier. In Martinez, the Supreme
Court held that a procedural default in state-court post-conviction
litigation will not bar a federal habeas court from hearing a sub-
stantial constitutional claim if the claim was not raised in the state
post-conviction proceeding only because the petitioner had no
counsel or the petitioner’s counsel in that proceeding was ineffec-
tive. Martinez, 566 U.S. at 13-14.
Martinez has no application here. The exception in Martinez
is not about timeliness. See Arthur v. Thomas, 739 F.3d 611, 613
(11th Cir. 2014). And it has never been applied to justify the grant-
ing of a writ of coram nobis. Moreover, the Martinez exception ap-
plies only when the denial of post-conviction counsel or the inef-
fectiveness of post-conviction counsel prevented a petitioner from
raising a meritorious claim. Martinez, 566 U.S. at 13-14. But Wil-
liams did not have post-conviction counsel, attempt to obtain post-
conviction counsel, or otherwise try to litigate a post-conviction
petition. He has made no effort to establish that his lack of post-
conviction counsel prevented him from raising his claim until more
than 20 years after his conviction and sentence.
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IV.
We GRANT the government’s motion for summary affir-
mance. We DENY its motion to stay the briefing schedule as moot
in light of Eleventh Circuit Rule 31-1(c).