OPINION
Elda San Juanita Regalado (“Regalado”) pleaded guilty to a single count of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute and to distribute an unspecified amount of marijuana. She was sentenced to 151 months in prison based on the offense and enhancements for obstruction of justice and leadership. After her sentencing hearing, Regalado initially expressed interest in appealing her sentence, but her retained attorney instead advised pursuit of relief under Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 35(b). When Regalado ultimately did not receive a sentence reduction for substantial assistance pursuant to Rule 35(b), she filed a motion for relief under 28 U.S.C. § 2255 to vacate, set aside, or correct her sentence on two grounds. First, Regalado claimed that her Sixth Amendment right to effective assistance of counsel was violated when her attorney failed to file an appeal at her request. Second, she asserted that her sentence violated
Apprendi v. New Jersey,
I. BACKGROUND
Regalado was indicted in the Western District of Michigan, along with four others, for conspiring to possess with intent to distribute and to distribute marijuana in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(a)(1), 846. The indictment did not include a drug quantity but instead cited 21 U.S.C. § 841(b)(1)(B), which states the penalty for conspiring to possess with intent to distribute or to distribute at least 100 kilograms of marijuana. Regalado was told at her arraignment that she faced not less than five and not more than forty years in рrison for this offense.
On April 26, 1999, Regalado pleaded guilty to the sole count in the indictment. At her guilty plea hearing, Regalado accepted responsibility for her involvement in supplying approximately 500 pounds (approximately 225 kilograms) of marijuana. Specifically, when asked how much marijuana she supplied to her contact in Lansing, Michigan over the life of the conspiracy, she testified:
I’d say a little bit over 500 and some pounds. I don’t exactly know the exact amount but more or less it’s give or take. There was three — there was four times, four trips, and the first one was 100 and the second one was 132, and then there was another one for 60 and then the 100 and — what I was told there were 120 that when they got stopped and they got arrested it was — I understand that it’s — there were 135 pounds, but to my knowledge it was supposed to be 120 pounds.
Joint Appendix (“J.A.”) at 169 (Plea Hr’g). Thereafter, in a sentencing memorandum, she again аcknowledged her involvement with these large marijuana transactions. Specifically, she took responsibility for organizing “four deliveries to Borrego as follows: June, 1997, 60 lbs.; July, 1997, 132 lbs.; August, 1997, 172 lbs.; and October, 1997, 135 lbs.” J.A. at 275 (Def.’s Statement Adopting Findings of Presen-tence Report).
At her sentencing hearing, Regalado received a sentence consistent with a base offense level of 26 and a finding that she was involved with 100 to 400 kilograms of marijuana (220 to 880 pounds). Over Re-galado’s objectiоns, she received enhancements pursuant to U.S. Sentencing Guidelines (“U.S.S.G.”) §§ 3B1.1 and 3C1.1, for being a leader in the conspiracy and for obstruction of justice. She also objected to the sentencing court’s decision not to reduce her guideline range for acceptance of responsibility. In light of the sentence enhancements, Regalado’s total offense level was 32, which resulted in a guideline range of 151-188 months in prison; Rega-lado receivеd a sentence at the lowest end of this range.
Regalado insists that she informed her trial attorney, Robert Yzaguirre (‘Yza-guirre”), on more than one occasion that she wanted to appeal her sentence. Both Regalado and Yzaguirre admit that she expressed this desire immediately after sentencing, before they even left the courtroom. Yzaguirre explains their interaction in the following testimony:
You see, it wasn’t so much her asking me to appeal her case, it was me telling her that I didn’t think that that was the route to go.... But I can understand how she as the defendant is thinking that I’m helping her — which I was trying to help her^ — and she’s not a lawyer. She could very well have been thinking that I was doing the appeal when I wasn’t. I was doing — I was trying to do the Rule 35.
*523 J.A. at 131-32 (Yzaguirre Cross Exam.). Regalado also claims that she placed a phone call to her lawyer the day after sentencing and told him “that no matter what I still wanted him to appeal my case.” J.A. at 105 (Regalado Direct Exam.). 1 According to Yzaguirre, however, he thought it best to provide assistance to the government and then pursue relief through Rule 35(b) because he feared an appeal might only result in a longer sentence. Although he admits that Regalado initially discussed an appeal, Yzaguirre insists that Regalado “never instructed” him to file an appeal. J.A. at 133 (Yzaguirre Cross Exam.). 2
On August 25, 2000, Regalado filed a pro se motion for relief from her sentence pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2255. After appointing a Public Defender to represent Regalado with respect to this motion, the district court referred Regalado’s ineffective assistance of counsel and Apprendi claims to a magistrate judge for an eviden-tiary hearing. After hearing testimony from Yzaguirre and Regalado, the magistrate judge recommended to the district judge that Regalado’s petition be dismissed on both grounds. The magistrate judgе concluded that Regalado “acquiesced in Mr. Yzaguirre’s strategy to seek a reduction of sentence instead of an appeal.” J.A. at 81 (Report and Recommendation). In addition, the magistrate judge made the factual finding that Rega-lado “did not, at any time, specifically direct Mr. Yzaguirre to file an appeal.” Id. The magistrate judge also determined that Regalado’s Apprendi claim failed because she never established cause and prejudice for not raising this issue on direct appеal. The district court adopted the magistrate judge’s report and recommendation and denied Regalado’s petition. Regalado filed a timely notice of appeal and requested a certificate of appealability which the district court denied. On January 11, 2002, this court granted a certificate of appeala-bility as to both issues.
II. ANALYSIS
A. Standard of Review
On appeal from the denial of a § 2255 motion, we review legal conclusions
*524
de novo and factual findings for clear error.
Wright v. United States,
B. Ineffective Assistance of Counsel
The Sixth Amendment of the United States Constitution provides that: “[i]n all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right ... to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence.” U.S. Const. amend. VI. The Supreme Court identified the purpose of the Sixth Amendment right to counsel as a means of “assuring] thаt in any criminal prosecution the accused shall not be left to his own devices in facing the prosecutorial forces of organized society.”
Moran v. Burbine,
The Court’s recent decision in
Roe v. Flores-Ortega,
Before the
Roe
Court addressed the precise question raised in that case, whether “counsel [is] dеficient for not filing a notice of appeal when the defendant has not clearly conveyed his wishes one way or the other,” the Court reiterated its prior decisions rebuking attorneys for failing to file appeals after clients so specifically instructed.
Roe,
Nevertheless, the
Roe
Court rejected a per se rule that an attorney must always file an appeal unless specifically told otherwise, and determined that when the client has neither told his attorney to file an appeal nor told her not to file an appeal, courts must evaluate the attorney’s performance by asking whether the attorney “consulted” with the defendant about the benefits and drawbacks of bringing an appeal.
Id.
at 478,
In this present appeal, Regalado does not contend that she specifically directed Yzaguirre to file an appeal,
3
or argue that she was dеnied a consultation with her lawyer regarding an appeal. Instead, Re-galado insists that Yzaguirre provided her with a meaningless consultation because he neglected to file an appeal even after she had expressed her desire that one be filed. But although Regalado expressed her desire to file an appeal, she did not specifically instruct Yzaguirre to do so.
See Roe,
The district court found Yzaguirre’s testimony credible that Regalado never instructed him to file an appeal and that Regalado agreed to proceed only on obtaining relief under Rule 35(b). The magistrate judge’s report did not credit Rega-lado’s testimony and instead determined that after consultation, Regalado never “explicitly directed]” her аttorney to file an appeal. J.A. at 84 (Report and Recommendation). The magistrate judge relied on the fact that Regalado “acquiesced” in Yzaguirre’s decision to pursue a Rule 35(b) reduction in sentence. 4 J.A. at 81 (Report and Recommendation). In addition, the magistrate judge credited Yzaguirre’s le *526 gitimate fear that after obtaining a sentence reduction from the district judge of fifteen years under the Sentencing Guidelines, an appeal actually might have resulted in a longer sentence. The magistrate judge further reasoned that Yzaguirre might have determined that filing both an appeal and pursuing Rule 35(b) relief simultaneously would be inconsistent, given that Rule 35(b) permits sentencing reductions upon the government’s motion based on cooperation with the government. Thus, the magistrate judge reasoned that Regalado failed to meet the first prong of the Strickland test — that her attorney’s performancе was deficient. As stated previously, the district court accepted the magistrate judge’s report and recommendation, specifically noting that Regalado acceded to Yzaguirre’s advice not to appeal.
We must affirm the district court’s decision because the district court interpreted the evidence in a manner consistent with the record.
Wright,
C. Apprendi Violation
Before the magistrate judge, Regalado asserted that because her indictment failed to allege a specific quantity of marijuana the district court could not sentence her beyond the default statutory-maximum sentence without violating her constitutional rights under
Apprendi.
Regalado insisted that under a
Teague v. Lane,
Our resolution of Regalado’s Apprendi claim turns on whether Apprendi has ret-
*527
roactive applicability to cases on collateral review. After the briefs were filed in this case, we published an opinion, in agreement with four othеr circuits,
7
holding that
“Apprendi
is not retroactively applicable to initial § 2255 motions, because
Apprendi
does not create a new “watershed rule’ that improves the accuracy of determining the guilt or innocence of a defendant.”
Goode v. United States,
The
Goode
court first determined that
Apprendi
established a new rule because “the result of
Apprendi
was not controlled by any ‘precedent existing at the time the defendant’s conviction became final.’ ”
Goode,
Moreover, even if Regalado were entitled to bring her
Apprendi
claim, she
*528
nonetheless would need to show cause and prejudice as to why she did not pursue this claim in the district court or on direct appeal. Section 2255 is not a substitute for a direct appeal, and thus a defendant cannot use it to circumvent the direct appeal process.
United States v. Frady,
Assuming that Regalado could satisfy the cause requirement, we conclude that the prejudice hurdle nonetheless remains insurmountable when Regalado admitted to involvement with nearly 500 pоunds of marijuana. We decided in
United States v. Harper,
III. CONCLUSION
For the foregoing reasons, we AFFIRM the district court’s denial of Regalado’s motion for relief pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2255.
Notes
. Yzaguirre’s testimony indicates otherwise: ‘‘[S]he never did call me and say, now, Mr. Yzaguirrе, I am telling you right now, I want you to file my appeal before the ten days are up. That never happened.” J.A. at 136 (Yza-guirre Cross Exam.).
. Yzaguirre also submitted an affidavit. His sworn statement reads:
I was present with Ms. Regalado for her Plea and her Sentencing and at neither time was I requested to file an Appeal on her behalf. Several months after her Sentencing!)] Ms. Regalado contacted me about the possibility of the Apprendi decision being beneficial tо her situation. After reviewing her case vis a vis the Apprendi decision, I advised Ms. Regalado of my opinion that Apprendi was not likely to provide her any relief and I declined to represent her in pursuing same. At no time was I instructed to pursue an appeal nor was T ever engaged for any other post-conviction matters for Ms. Regalado.
J.A. at 62 (Yzaguirre Aff.). Yzaguirre further denied any specific instruction in response to a question from the bench:
THE COURT: [I]n order to grant the relief of a new appeal — .... I would have to find one of a couple things. One thing that I could find is that you were directly instructed to appeal and that you were ineffective because you ignored your client’s directions. It doesn’t sound to me like you’re saying that's what happened.
THE WITNESS: It didn't happen that way, your Honor.
J.A. at 137 (Yzaguirre Redirect Exam.). Even though Yzaguirre's testimony indicates that he wasn't expressly instructed to file an appeal, it is clear that he would like the court to give Regalado the "benefit of the doubt” and grant her a late appeal. J.A. at 132 (Yza-guirre Cross Exam.); see id. at 138 ("If I made a mistake I made a mistake and I’m asking the Court to give her the benefit of the doubt.”).
. Although Regalado’s own testimony expresses her opinion that she instructed Yza-guirre to file an appeal, the arguments in her brief suggest that she expressed her "desire” or "wishes” to file an appeal. The briefs suggest that Yzaguirre should be judged ineffective because he knew of her "desires” or “wishes” to appeal but pursuеd an alternative form of relief.
. It appears that Regalado wrote a letter to the federal prosecutor in support of a Rule 35(b) motion. J.A. at 81 (Report and Recommendation).
. The government argues that Regalado waived this particular
Apprendi
argument by failing to raise it below. We need not consider the waiver argument because it is clear that Regalado is not entitled to any relief under
Apprendi.
As the forthcoming discussion will show, this court held in
Goode v. United States,
. Shortly after the briefs in this case were filed, thе Supreme Court provided the answer to Regalado's newest
Apprendi
argument that failure to include drug quantity in the indictment deprived the district court of jurisdiction.
See United States v. Cotton,
. The Fourth, Eighth, Ninth, and Eleventh Circuits have all decided against retroactive application of
Apprendi
in collateral proceedings.
See United States v. Sanders,
. In
Teague,
the Supreme Court held that "[u]nless they fall within an exception to the general rule, new constitutional rules of criminal procedure will not be applicable to those cases which have become final before the new rules are announced.”
. The first exception was irrelevant in
Goode
because
Apprendi
did not make drug conspiracies "beyond the power of the criminal lawmaking authority to proscribe.”
Teague,
