In this appeal, we are presented with the specific question of whether a district court has jurisdiction, after the expiration of the time provided by Rule 35 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure and without any federal habeas corpus petition before it, to reduce a prisoner’s sentence based upon its conclusion that the sentence it had originally imposed was erroneous due to a grouping error under the Sentencing Guidelines. Because we conclude that the district court did not have such jurisdiction to modify the original sentence, we reverse, vacate the amended sentence and remand with instructions to reinstate the original sentence.
I. BACKGROUND
The somewhat complicated and lengthy history of this case is as follows. In May of 1991, a federal grand jury sitting in the Southern District of Florida indicted ap- *1312 pellee, Hector Ramon Diaz-Clark (“Diaz-Clark”) on three counts relating to a conspiracy to import cocaine into the United States. This is referred to as the “Miami Case.” In June of 1994, Diaz-Clark entered into a written plea agreement with the government and pled guilty to Count I of the Miami Case indictment.
In early 1994, another federal grand jury, this one sitting in the Middle District of Florida, indicted Diaz-Clark for conspiracy to import marijuana into the United States. This is referred to as the “Rule 20 Case” because the case was transferred on February 10, 1995 to the Southern District of Florida pursuant to Rule 20 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure. This case was originally assigned to Judge Lenore Nesbitt, but was soon transferred to Judge Shelby Highsmith, who was handling the Miami Case. Additionally, the government’s unopposed motion to transfer was also a motion to consolidate the two cases; although Judge Nesbitt granted the motion to transfer, which Judge Highsmith accepted, the motion to consolidate was never ruled upon.
In January of 1995, the district court held the first of two sentencing hearings in the Miami Case. At the beginning of this hearing, the status of the Rule 20 case was discussed; when the district judge learned that the transfer paperwork in the Rule 20 case had not been completed, he decided to proceed nonetheless with sentencing in the Miami Case. However, the sentencing was continued in order to conduct an evi-dentiary hearing on a contested issue surrounding Diaz-Clark’s involvement in the cocaine conspiracy. Shortly thereafter, tile transfer of the Rule 20 Case was completed.
Therefore, as of February 27, 1995, both cases were before a single district judge, from whom this appeal has arisen. On March 3, 1995, the district court called both the Miami Case and the Rule 20 Case, stating that sentencing would be pronounced first in the Miami Case, with the court then taking up the Rule 20 case. After addressing the parties’ objections to the Presentence Investigation (“PSI”) that had been prepared in the Miami Case, the district court sentenced Diaz-Clark to 168 months’ imprisonment, five years’ supervised release, and a $50.00 assessment. 1 After the sentence had been pronounced, the court asked if there were any objections to the findings of fact or the manner in which the sentence had been imposed— Diaz-Clark made no objections.
The district court then called the Rule 20 Case. The prosecutor provided the court with a copy of a written plea agreement, with which the court in turn provided the probation officer, asking the probation officer to perform certain Sentencing Guidelines calculations. The court then placed Diaz-Clark under oath and conducted a plea colloquy. The court then accepted Diaz-Clark’s guilty plea to Count I of the Rule 20 indictment. When asked about the application of the Sentencing Guidelines, the probation officer, the court, and counsel engaged in a short discussion concerning the court’s reasoning behind the order in which the cases were sentenced. Diaz-Clark then waived a PSI, and the court sentenced him to 120 months’ imprisonment, five years’ supervised release, and a $50.00 assessment *1313 with the Rule 20 sentence to run concurrently with the Miami Case sentence. Again the court asked if there were any objections to the findings of fact or the manner in which the sentence had been imposed and again Diaz-Clark made no objections.
Diaz-Clark did not appeal the sentence that had been imposed in either the Miami Case or the Rule 20 Case. However, on April 23, 1997, he filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus in both cases. In the Miami Case petition, Diaz-Clark argued that he was entitled to habeas relief because of: (1) the disparity between his sentence and those of his co-defendants; (2) the district court’s failure properly to consider his alleged abandonment of the conspiracy; (3) the court’s failure to sentence him below the guideline range; (4) a violation of
Brady v. Maryland,
In the Rule 20 habeas petition, Diaz-Clark argued that the sentence should be vacated due to (1) the court’s erroneous application of a ten-year mandatory minimum sentence and (2) the government’s failure to file a substantial assistance motion. The government conceded that Diaz-Clark’s sentence in the Rule 20 Case should not have been subject to the Level 30 ten-year mandatory minimum for 1,000 kilograms or more of marijuana, and therefore agreed that Diaz-Clark should be resentenced in that case. Accordingly, the magistrate judge entered a Report and Recommendation, which the district court then adopted on February 16, 2000, recommending that the habeas petition be granted in part, limited to the issue of re-sentencing due to the confusion over the mandatory-minimum issue. The resen-tencing hearing was scheduled for May 2, 2000.
On May 1, 2000, a probation officer advised the district court that in imposing its original sentence in the Rule 20 Case, it should have treated the indictments in that case and the Miami Case as if they were separate counts of conviction contained in the same indictment, therefore sentencing Diaz-Clark under U.S.S.G. § 5G1.2. The Commentary to this Section states in pertinent part: “This section applies to multiple counts of conviction (1) contained in the same indictment or information, or (2) contained in different indictments or informa-tions for which sentences are to be imposed at the same time or in a consolidated proceeding.” United States Sentencing Commission, Guidelines Manual, § 5G1.2, cmt. (2001). With this in mind, the probation officer recalculated the guidelines level, which resulted in an adjusted offense level of 31 and a criminal history category of I. 2 The probation officer recommended *1314 that these calculations be applied in both the Miami Case and the Rule 20 Case, as in the probation officer’s opinion, these cases should have been grouped in the first instance.
The government filed an objection to the probation officer’s recommendation, arguing that the Miami Case and Rule 20 Case were “distinct criminal episodes” involving “different co-conspirators for the importation of a different [sic] narcotics at a different location which was [sic ] investigated and charged separately in two different districts.... ” The government contended that resentencing was only appropriate in the Rule 20 Case, and not in the Miami Case, because only the Rule 20 habeas petition had been partially granted.
The district court then invited the parties to brief the issue of how it could obtain jurisdiction to remedy this perceived grouping error. Because Diaz-Clark’s appeal of the denial of the Miami Case’s habeas corpus petition was before this Court, the district court determined that it did not have jurisdiction to attempt to correct the sentence in that case. Diaz-Clark argued that the district court could obtain jurisdiction to resentence him in the Miami Case if this Court were to issue a limited remand. The government argued in opposition that the court could not regain jurisdiction because of the following: (1) the case was on appeal; (2) there was no pending motion that would warrant the filing of a motion under
United States v. Ellsworth,
On May 17, 2000, the district court entered an order entitled “Certification to the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals,” wherein the court noted what it considered to be an error in not grouping the Miami Case and the Rule 20 Case in imposing sentence. The Certification Order requested this Court to remand the Miami Case’s habeas case for the limited purpose of allowing the district court to have both cases before it so it could group them together in calculating the sentence under the Guidelines. The district court wrote that “[t]he procedural nuances of two rather arcane areas of law (the Sentencing Guidelines and post-conviction collateral litigation) have collided in this case, and left the Court unable to correct a sentencing error.” On August 21, 2000, this Court entered an order carrying the district court’s certification with the case. Diaz-Clark also filed a motion for a limited remand, which was also ordered to be carried with the case. Finally, on December 6, 2000, Diaz-Clark moved for voluntary dismissal of his appeal, which was granted on January 12, 2001.
Diaz-Clark’s resentencing hearing was then set for March 8, 2001. At that hearing, the district court, over the objection of the government as to the court’s jurisdiction to do so, proceeded to resentence Diaz-Clark for both the Rule 20 Case and the Miami Case. The adjusted guideline range was 31 with a criminal history category of I, which yielded a guideline range of 108 to 135 months’ imprisonment. The district court denied Diaz-Clark’s motion for downward departure based on rehabilitation, and sentenced him to concurrent sentences of 108 months’ imprisonment *1315 and three years’ supervised release. This resulted in a five-year decrease from the original sentences. Diaz-Clark then reminded the court that under the Rule 20 Case’s plea agreement, the maximum sentence that could be imposed in that case was 60 months’ imprisonment. The court accordingly amended its final judgment to indicate that the sentence imposed in the Rule 20 Case was 60 months’ imprisonment. The government noted its objection based on the court’s lack of jurisdiction to resentence in the Miami Case.
The district court’s position vis-a-vis re-sentencing Diaz-Clark in both cases, in order to reflect what it considered to be the correct application of the Sentencing Guidelines’ grouping requirements, was that federal courts enjoy a species of “inherent power” to correct an illegal sentence. In reaching this conclusion, the court relied on
United States v. Cochran,
II. DISCUSSION
We have jurisdiction to adjudicate this appeal pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 3742(b). Whether the district court had jurisdiction to resentence Diaz-Clark is a legal question subject to plenary review.
See United States v. Sjeklocha,
After a thorough review of the pleadings, the record, and the briefs on appeal, we conclude that the district court erred in concluding that aside from the specific parameters set forth by the federal statutory provisions controlling sentencing, as well as the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, it could invoke an “inherent power” to correct what it viewed as the illegal sentence it had imposed in the Miami Case. We therefore vacate the district court’s resentencing in the Miami Case and remand that case back to the district court with instructions to reinstate the original sentence.
The most germane facts are these. The sentence in the Miami Case was imposed on March 3, 1995. Diaz-Clark did not appeal this sentence, but on April 23, 1997, filed a § 2255 habeas petition. The habeas petition did not raise the grouping issue. On February 23, 2000, the district court denied this petition. Diaz-Clark appealed this denial, and then voluntarily dismissed his appeal on January 12, 2001. On March 8, 2001, the district court resentenced Diaz-Clark in both cases. This was more than six years after the original sentence had been imposed in the Miami Case and more than one year after the Miami Case habeas petition had been denied.
The starting point for the analysis is the relevant statutory provision. Section 3582 of Title 18, United States Code, provides in pertinent part:
The court may not modify a term of imprisonment once it has been imposed 'except that—
(1) in any case—
(B) the court may modify an imposed term of imprisonment to the extent otherwise expressly permit *1316 ted by statute or by Rule 35 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure.
18 U.S.C. § 3582(c). The proviso that a court may modify a sentence when “expressly permitted by statute” refers to situations where the defendant is incarcerated pursuant to a “plainly illegal sentence.” Fed. R.CRIm. P. 35 advisory committee’s notes. The drafters of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure explicitly assumed “that a defendant detained pursuant to such a sentence could seek relief under 28 U.S.C. § 2255 if the seven day period provided in Rule 35(c) has elapsed.”
Id.
Here, however, Diaz-Clark failed to raise the grouping issue on direct appeal or in his original § 2255 petition. Therefore, Diaz-Clark is confronted with the AEDPA’s
3
“second or successive” petition limitation if he attempts to attack the sentence in the Miami Case in this manner. Under this limitation, Diaz-Clark must obtain certification by the court of appeals before a “second or successive” habeas petition may be pursued in the district court, and such certification will only be granted if the petitioner makes a showing of newly discovered evidence that establishes his or her innocence, or points to a new rule of constitutional law, recognized by the Supreme Court and made retroactively applicable to cases on collateral review.
See
28 U.S.C. §§ 2244, 2255;
see also Castro v. United States,
Therefore, the district court could have modified the sentence imposed in the Miami Case only in one of two ways: (1) pursuant to Rule 35 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, or (2) pursuant to the “inherent authority” upon which the district court relied. 5 As the district court noted in its Certification to the Eleventh Circuit, “[n]either Rule 35 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure nor 18 U.S.C. § 3583(e) [dealing with issues of supervised release] provides authority to resen-tence Diaz-Clark in [the Miami Case].” This was an accurate statement, and as such the district court acted outside the boundaries of its jurisdiction when it re-sentenced Diaz-Clark in the Miami Case.
Prior to the 1987 amendments to the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, Rule 35(a) stated that “[t]he court may correct an illegal sentence at any time and may correct a sentence imposed in an illegal manner within the time provided herein for the reduction of sentence.” However, *1317 as part of the Sentencing Reform Act of 1984, Congress amended this part of Rule 35. On November 1, 1987, the amendments took effect. Then Rule 35 was again amended in 1991. As amended, Rule 35 provides that a sentencing court may correct a sentence: (1) if directed to do so on remand from an appellate court, see Fed. R.Crim. P. 35(a); (2) within one year of the original sentence if upon a substantial assistance motion filed by the government, see id. 35(b); or (3) most significantly for this appeal, “within seven days after the imposition of sentence, ... [to] correct a sentence that was imposed as a result of arithmetical, technical, or other clear error.” Id. 35(c).
This Court has conclusively held that “the seven-day limitation contained in Rule 35(c) is a jurisdictional restriction,”
United States v. Morrison,
Other circuit courts that have addressed the issue are in accord.
See, e.g., United States v. Austin,
The same cases previously cited with respect to Rule 35’s seven-day limitation also dispose of the issue of whether a district court has some sort of inherent authority to modify a sentence outside of Rule 35(c)’s time period. They conclude that district courts do not.
See, e.g., Barragan-Mendoza,
The advisory committee notes to Rule 35’s 1991 amendments themselves recognized that at least two circuit courts had “held that the trial court has the inherent authority ... to correct a sentence” within the time allowed for appeal, and that the amended Rule 35(c), with its seven-day restriction, “in effect codifies the result in those two cases but provides a more stringent time requirement.” Fed. R.Crim. P. 35 advisory committee’s notes. 6
The district court relied on
United States v. Cochran,
*1319 Because we conclude that the district court had no jurisdiction to resentence in the Miami Case, we need not decide the issue of whether the district court correctly applied the grouping provisions of the Sentencing Guidelines to the Miami Case and the Rule 20 Case. 8 The district court had concluded that U.S.S.G. § 5G1.2, dealing with the appropriate sentence to be imposed on multiple counts of conviction, applied to the cases before it because the Commentary states: “This section applies to multiple counts of conviction (1) contained in the same indictment or information, or (2) contained in different indictments or informations for which sentences are to be imposed at the same time or in a consolidated proceeding.” Id. Regardless, the Miami Case was not properly before the district court after Diaz-Clark’s habeas petition in the Rule 20 Case had been granted for the limited purpose of resentencing in order to come into compliance with the plea bargain entered into in that case.
III. CONCLUSION
In conclusion, under the relevant statutes and case law, the district court acted without jurisdiction when it resentenced Diaz-Clark in the Miami Case. It acted outside of Rule 35(c)’s seven-day jurisdictional limit, without a remand from this Court and without a substantial assistance motion filed by the government. Outside of Rule 35(c) there exists no “inherent authority” for a district court to modify a sentence. Therefore, the sentence is VACATED, and the case is REMANDED with instructions to the district court to reinstate the original Miami Case sentence.
VACATED AND REMANDED.
Notes
. The guidelines in the Miami Case were calculated as follows: The base offense level was set at 38 because the offense involved at least 150 kilograms but less than 500 kilograms of cocaine. Although the Presentence Investigation Report initially recommended a four-level enhancement for role, the government subsequently agreed that the upward adjustment was not warranted. After a three-level adjustment for acceptance of responsibility, the total offense level was set at 35, with a criminal history category of I, which yielded a total guideline range of 168-210 months.
. The base offense level was determined to be 38 because the Miami.Case involved 300 kilograms of cocaine. The Rule 20 Case involved more than 700 kilograms but less than 1,000 kilograms of marijuana, or the equivalent of an additional five kilograms of cocaine. Because the combined total was more than 150 but less fewer than 500 kilograms of cocaine, the base offense level remained 38, the same as that in the Miami Case alone. There was an adjustment of two levels made for the safety valve under U.S.S.G. § 2D1.1(b)(6), an adjustment of two levels for minor role as *1314 agreed in the Rule 20 Case, and a three-level adjustment for acceptance of responsibility; this yielded a total offense level of 31, with a concomitant guideline range of 108-135 months.
. Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996, Pub.L. No. 104-32, 110 Stat. 1214 (1996).
. Further, it is somewhat unclear whether Diaz-Clark’s argument concerning misapplication of the sentencing guidelines would be proper grounds for relief under § 2255 because ''nonconstitutional claims can be raised on collateral review only when the alleged error constitutes a ‘fundamental defect which inherently results in a complete miscarriage of justice [or] an omission inconsistent with the rudimentary demands of fair procedure.’"
Burke v. United States,
.It is worth noting here, by way of general background, that "[i]t is by now axiomatic that the inferior federal courts are courts of limited jurisdiction. They are 'empowered to hear only those cases within the judicial power of the United States as defined by Article III of the Constitution,’ and which have been entrusted to them by a jurisdictional grant authorized by Congress.”
University of So. Ala. v. American Tobacco Co.,
.
See also Barragan-Mendoza,
Analyzing the 1987 amended version of Rule 35, circuits held that district courts had "inherent authority” to correct sentencing errors, despite the absence of any statute authorizing such corrections. See United States v. Rico,902 F.2d 1065 , 1067 (2d Cir.1990) ("[A] district court has inherent power in certain circumstances to correct its acknowledged mistakes, even after the enactment of amended Rule 35(a).”); United States v. Cook,890 F.2d 672 , 675 (4th Cir.1989) (similar). Because of such decisions, the Committee in 1991 added subsection (c). The Committee expressly noted that subsection (c) was intended to codify the court’s “inherent authority” to modify sentences, but with more stringent limitations. See Fed.R.Crim.P. 35 advisory committee's notes (West 1998)....
(emphasis added).
. Diaz-Clark devotes most of his argument on appeal to the proposition that jurisdiction exists through application of the "sentencing package” doctrine. While usually applied on direct appeal, we have referred to the sentencing package doctrine in holding that a district court has jurisdiction, after vacating an 18 U.S.C. § 924(c) conviction on a challenge brought in a § 2255 petition pursuant to
Bailey v. United States,
. Because we decide the case on the basis of the district court's lack of jurisdiction, we pause here only to note the incongruity of applying grouping to lower by five years the sentence imposed in the cocaine case alone, before consideration of the marijuana offense.
In explaining the rationale for grouping, the Sentencing Commission has pointed out that “[t]he difficulty is that when a defendant engages in conduct that causes several harms, each additional harm, even if it increases the extent to which punishment is warranted, does not necessarily warrant a proportionate increase in punishment.” United States Sentencing Commission,
Guidelines Manual,
Ch. 1, Pt. A, p. 8 (2001). While the “volume discount” for grouping unrelated offenses has been described as "hardly intuitive,”
United States v. Hernandez Coplin,