GARY DUANE HARRIS, Petitioner-Appellant, v. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Respondent-Appellee.
No. 21-5040
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SIXTH CIRCUIT
December 1, 2021
RECOMMENDED FOR PUBLICATION Pursuant to Sixth Circuit I.O.P. 32.1(b). File Name: 21a0273p.06. Appeal from the United States District Court for the Western District of Kentucky at Paducah. Nos. 5:19-cv-00046; 5:96-cr-00024-2—Thomas B. Russell, District Judge. Argued: October 26, 2021.
Before: DAUGHTREY, COLE, and CLAY, Circuit Judges.
COUNSEL
ARGUED: Frank W. Heft, Jr., OFFICE OF THE FEDERAL DEFENDER, Louisville, Kentucky, for Appellant. Terry M. Cushing, UNITED STATES ATTORNEY‘S OFFICE, Louisville, Kentucky, for Appellee. ON BRIEF: Frank W. Heft, Jr., Scott T. Wendelsdorf,
OPINION
MARTHA CRAIG DAUGHTREY, Circuit Judge. Petitioner Gary Duane Harris appeals from the district court‘s denial of his second or successive
Harris argues that the consecutive 60-month sentence must be vacated because it is possible that the district court imposed that punishment pursuant to the unconstitutionally vague “residual clause” of
Although it is possible that Harris could demonstrate that his sentence is constitutionally suspect, our inquiry does not end there. To justify relief under
FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND
In April 1996, two seventeen-year-olds, Gary Duane Harris and Anthony Charles Gaines, Jr., approached two soldiers near a convenience store on the United States Army base in Fort Campbell, Kentucky. In an attempt to rob the soldiers, Gaines pulled a handgun from his clothing. As Gaines attempted to transfer the weapon to his other hand, the gun discharged, and a bullet struck Private First Class Michael Alonso-Caravia in the neck, killing him.
Following their arrests, both Harris and Gaines pleaded guilty to charges of aiding and abetting second-degree murder, in violation of
Harris‘s initial collateral attempts to vacate, set aside, or correct his sentence proved unsuccessful. See Harris v. United States (Harris II), No. 04-5196 (6th Cir. May 4, 2004) (order); In re Gary Duane Harris (Harris III), No. 16-5469 (6th Cir. Sept. 23, 2016) (order). In March 2019, however, a panel of this court granted Harris authorization to file a second or successive
Indeed, in United States v. Davis, 139 S. Ct. 2319, 2336 (2019), the Supreme Court concluded that
- the standard for granting a motion to vacate a sentence based on
§ 924(c) where the record is silent but it is possible or likely that the district court relied on the residual clause at sentencing, and (2) whether either of Harris‘s predicate offenses under18 U.S.C. §§ 1111 or2111 is a categorical crime of violence under the elements clause of§ 924(c) .
DISCUSSION
Standard of Review and Requirements for § 2255 Relief
We review de novo the denial of a
An initial
- newly discovered evidence that, if proven and viewed in light of the evidence as a whole, would be sufficient to establish by clear and convincing evidence that no reasonable factfinder would have found the movant guilty of the offense; or
- a new rule of constitutional law, made retroactive to cases on collateral
review by the Supreme Court, that was previously unavailable.
Harris cannot point to any newly discovered evidence to support his claim for collateral relief. Rather, he alleges that, in light of the new rule of constitutional law set forth in Davis, the district court improperly relied upon the residual clause of
Basis for Harris‘s 18 U.S.C. § 924(c) Sentence
By pleading guilty to Count 3 of the superseding indictment returned against him, Harris admitted that he aided and abetted his co-defendant in using or carrying a firearm during and in relation to two crimes—aiding and abetting second-degree murder and aiding and abetting attempted robbery. Consequently, he was subject to sentencing pursuant to the provisions of
[A]ny person who, during and in relation to any crime of violence . . . for which the person may be prosecuted in a court of the United States, uses or carries a firearm . . . shall, in addition to the punishment provided for such crime of violence . . . be sentenced to a term of imprisonment of not less than 5 years.
(Emphasis added.)
The term “crime of violence” in
- has as an element the use, attempted use, or threatened use of physical force against the person or property of another, or
- that by its nature, involves a substantial risk that physical force against the person or property of another may be used in the course of committing the offense.
Section 924(c)(3)(A) is known as the statute‘s “elements clause,” while
Challenges to Statutory Residual Clauses
In 2015, the United States Supreme Court ruled in Johnson v. United States, 576 U.S. 591 (2015), that a sentence imposed pursuant to a “residual clause” in the Armed Career Criminal Act (ACCA),
According to the Court, “the indeterminacy of the wide-ranging inquiry required by the residual clause both denies fair notice to defendants and invites arbitrary enforcement by judges.” Johnson, 576 U.S. at 597. Because invalidation of that clause “changed the substantive reach of the Armed Career Criminal Act,” the Court later recognized that Johnson‘s holding must be applied retroactively to other cases on collateral review. Welch v. United States, 136 S. Ct. 1257, 1265 (2016). Even so, because of the difference in language between the residual clause of the ACCA and its definition of a “violent felony” and
Approximately three years after Johnson, the Supreme Court offered some indication of the ultimate answer to those questions in its ruling in Sessions v. Dimaya, 138 S. Ct. 1204 (2018). In Dimaya, the Court considered a challenge to the constitutionality of a residual clause contained in
Finally, in Davis, the Supreme Court addressed head-on the contention that the residual clause in
Determination of the Basis for the Crime-of-Violence Finding
In this appeal, Harris relies upon Davis‘s invalidation of
To support that contention, Harris cites our decision in Williams v. United States, 927 F.3d 427 (6th Cir. 2019), and analyzes the five factors that case identified as aids in determining whether a particular sentence was imposed pursuant to an unconstitutional residual clause. After examining the sentencing record, the legal background at the time of sentencing, the presence of informed decisionmakers, the nature of the predicate offense, and later, predictable, legal developments, Harris concludes that those factors “establish that it is possible or likely that he was sentenced under
Engaging in an examination of the Williams factors yields little benefit to Harris in this case, however. First, the sentencing record is silent as to the district court‘s basis for finding Harris worthy of enhanced punishment.
Second, consideration of the legal background at the time of sentencing does not give a definitive answer to the relevant question raised by Harris in this collateral
As we explained in our en banc decision in United States v. Burris, 912 F.3d 386, 392 (6th Cir. 2019):
The categorical approach prohibits federal sentencing courts from looking at the particular facts of the defendant‘s previous state or federal felony convictions; rather, federal sentencing courts “may ‘look only to the statutory definitions‘—i.e., the elements—of a defendant‘s prior offenses.” Descamps [v. United States], 570 U.S.[254, 261 (2013)] (quoting Taylor, 495 U.S. at 600 . . .). The question for the sentencing court in the elements-clause context is whether every defendant convicted of that state or federal felony must have used, attempted to use, or threatened to use physical force against the person of another in order to have been convicted, not whether the particular defendant actually used, attempted to use, or threatened to use physical force against the person of another in that particular case.
(Citations omitted.) Because the district court did not engage in an explicit categorical-approach analysis at sentencing, Harris contends that the district judge must have relied upon the residual clause in
Moreover, by 1993, we had recognized that even the concept of “intimidation” required proof of “conduct and words calculated to create the impression that any resistance or defiance by the [victim] would be met by force.” United States v. Perry, 991 F.2d 304, 310 (6th Cir. 1993) (quoting United States v. Jones, 932 F.2d 624, 625 (7th Cir. 1991)); see also United States v. Henry, 722 F. App‘x 496, 500 (6th Cir. 2018) (“[I]ntimidation is all it takes to satisfy
and abetting attempted robbery fell squarely within the parameters of
Fourth, an examination of the nature of the predicate offenses also does little to aid Harris‘s cause. In fact, such an analysis lends credence to the belief that the district court relied upon
Fifth, any consideration of legal developments occurring after sentencing sheds little light on the district court‘s actual sentencing rationale. Nevertheless, Sixth Circuit decisions rendered after Harris was sentenced establish that statutory language virtually identical to that found in
Harris concedes that examination of the Williams factors does not conclusively establish that the sentencing judge relied upon
“It is a ‘tall order’ for a petitioner to show which . . . clause a district court applied when the sentencing record is silent—a burden all the more unjust considering that silence is the norm, not the exception.” Raines v. United States, 898 F.3d 680, 690–91 (6th Cir. 2018) (Cole, C.J., concurring). But even engaging in a Williams-factors analysis does little to aid Harris. As the district court noted when denying Harris relief on his second or successive
Determination of Whether Harris‘s Predicate Convictions Are Crimes of Violence
Aiding and Abetting Second-Degree Murder
Squelching any inclination to presume that a second-degree murder conviction necessarily involves the use, attempted use, or threatened use of physical force against the person of another, the Supreme Court recently held that an offense requiring a mens rea of simple recklessness does not qualify as a violent felony under the elements clause of the ACCA,
Aiding and Abetting Attempted Robbery
In arguing that a conviction under
Even so, Harris continues to argue that
CONCLUSION
Because
