United States v. McMahan ( 2018 )

FILED
United States Court of Appeals
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS Tenth Circuit
FOR THE TENTH CIRCUIT April 24, 2018
_________________________________
Elisabeth A. Shumaker
Clerk of Court
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
Plaintiff - Appellee,
v. No. 16-3308
(D.C. Nos. 2:16-CV-02319-JWL and 2:12-
SHANE MCMAHAN, CR-20120-JWL-1)
(D. Kan.)
Defendant - Appellant.
_________________________________
ORDER AND JUDGMENT*
_________________________________
Before BRISCOE, McHUGH, and MORITZ, Circuit Judges.
_________________________________
Shane McMahan appeals the district court’s order denying his 28 U.S.C.
§ 2255 motion. Specifically, McMahan argues that the sentencing court erred by
relying on the now-defunct residual clause of the Armed Career Criminal Act
(ACCA) of 1984, 18 U.S.C. § 924(e), when it imposed a 15-year prison sentence. See
Johnson v. United States, 135 S. Ct. 2551, 2563 (2015) (striking down ACCA’s
residual clause as unconstitutionally vague). But McMahan concedes that he has two
convictions for crimes that constitute violent felonies under the ACCA’s enumerated-
offense clause. And we conclude today that his Kansas conviction for aggravated
*
This order and judgment isn’t binding precedent, except under the doctrines
of law of the case, res judicata, and collateral estoppel. But it may be cited for its
persuasive value. See Fed. R. App. P. 32.1; 10th Cir. R. 32.1.
battery, see Kan. Stat. Ann. § 21-3414(a)(1)(C) (1995) (repealed 2011), constitutes a
violent-felony conviction under the ACCA’s elements clause. Thus, the sentencing
court correctly imposed the ACCA’s enhanced penalty. See § 924(e)(1) (imposing
mandatory minimum 15-year prison sentence for defendants with three or more prior
convictions for violent felonies or serious drug offenses who are subsequently
convicted of being a felon in possession of a firearm). Accordingly, we affirm the
district court’s order denying McMahan’s § 2255 petition.
Background
In 2013, McMahan pleaded guilty to possession of a firearm by a convicted
felon. See 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1). As part of the plea, McMahan admitted he had six
prior convictions for Kansas felonies: two for burglary of a dwelling, one for
burglary of a vehicle, one for attempted criminal threat, one for conspiracy to commit
robbery, and one for aggravated battery. The parties stipulated that McMahan would
serve a 15-year prison sentence in exchange for the plea. See Fed. R. Crim. P.
11(c)(1)(C) (authorizing parties to a plea agreement to stipulate to appropriate
sentence). The district court accepted McMahan’s plea and sentenced him to 15 years
in prison. See id. (stating that parties’ stipulation regarding appropriate sentence
“binds the court once the court accepts the plea agreement”).
McMahan didn’t appeal. But in 2015, the Supreme Court struck down the
ACCA’s residual clause as unconstitutionally vague. Johnson, 135 S. Ct. at 2557; see
also Welch v. United States, 136 S. Ct. 1257, 1265 (2016) (applying Johnson
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retroactively). Thus, after Johnson and Welch, the only offenses that constitute
violent felonies for ACCA purposes are those that satisfy either its enumerated-
offense clause or its elements clause. See United States v. Pam, 867 F.3d 1191, 1203
(10th Cir. 2017). In other words, predicate convictions for burglary, arson, extortion,
or crimes that involve the use of explosives, see § 924(e)(2)(B)(ii), or for offenses
that “ha[ve] as an element the use, attempted use, or threatened use of physical force
against the person of another,” § 924(e)(2)(B)(i), remain convictions for violent
felonies under the ACCA. See Pam, 867 F.3d at 1203.
In light of this new legal landscape, McMahan moved to vacate his sentence
under § 2255. He conceded that his two burglary-of-a-dwelling convictions remain
convictions for violent felonies under the ACCA. But he argued that his other four
convictions do not. The government responded that McMahan’s 2003 aggravated-
battery conviction under § 21-3414(a)(1)(C) “has as an element the use, attempted
use, or threatened use of physical force against the person of another” and is thus a
violent felony under the ACCA’s elements clause. § 924(e)(2)(B)(i). Citing United
States v. Treto-Martinez, 421 F.3d 1156 (10th Cir. 2005), the district court agreed
and thus denied McMahan’s petition. See Treto-Martinez, 421 F.3d at 1160 (holding
that § 21-3414(a)(1)(C) constitutes “crime of violence” under United States
Sentencing Guidelines’ elements clause); United States v. Williams, 559 F.3d 1143,
1147 n.7 (10th Cir. 2009) (explaining that because ACCA’s elements clause and
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Guidelines’ elements clause are substantively identical, we may look to cases
interpreting one to interpret other).
We granted McMahan a certificate of appealability because we determined that
the district court’s conclusion was at least debatable. See Slack v. McDaniel, 529 U.S.
473, 483–84 (2000). But for the reasons stated below, we ultimately agree with the
district court’s conclusion that § 21-3414(a)(1)(C) satisfies the ACCA’s elements
clause. Therefore, we affirm its order.
Analysis
I. Preliminary Issues
Initially, we address two preliminary issues that arose at oral argument. First,
we questioned whether the nature of McMahan’s plea allows him to now attack his
sentence under Johnson. As part of McMahan’s plea agreement, the parties stipulated
to a 15-year prison sentence. And once the district court accepted McMahan’s plea, it
became bound by that stipulation. See Fed. R. Crim. P. 11(c)(1)(C). Thus, McMahan
arguably wasn’t sentenced under the ACCA at all. See Pam, 867 F.3d at 1198
(explaining that under Rule 11(c)(1)(C), it’s technically “the binding plea agreement
that is the foundation for the term of imprisonment to which the defendant is
sentenced” (quoting Freeman v. United States, 564 U.S. 522, 535 (2011) (Sotomayor,
J., concurring))). And if McMahan wasn’t sentenced under the ACCA, then he
couldn’t have been sentenced under the ACCA’s unconstitutional residual clause.
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But as we’ve previously explained, when a defendant’s “plea agreement
expressly used the ACCA—specifically its statutorily mandated minimum term of
imprisonment—to establish the agreed-upon 180-month sentence,” the defendant
may challenge that sentence as illegal under Johnson. Pam, 867 F.3d at 1198–99.
Here, both McMahan’s plea agreement and the district court’s judgment expressly
referenced § 924(e), which codifies the ACCA’s mandatory 15-year minimum
sentence. Thus, McMahan’s sentence is based on the ACCA. And he may therefore
challenge it as illegal under Johnson. See Pam, 867 F.3d at 1198–99.
Next, we questioned at oral argument whether we should reach the merits of
McMahan’s appeal given that he waived his right to collaterally attack his sentence
as part of his plea. We assume without deciding that we could enforce McMahan’s
waiver had the government asserted it. See United States v. Porter, 405 F.3d 1136,
1145 (10th Cir. 2005) (declining to invalidate plea agreement based on subsequent
change in substantive law). But the government didn’t invoke McMahan’s collateral-
attack waiver below. And it expressly declined to rely on the waiver at oral argument.
Collateral-attack waivers aren’t jurisdictional, so we have no duty to enforce
them sua sponte. See United States v. Parker, 720 F.3d 781, 786 n.4 (10th Cir. 2013).
Whether we may enforce them sua sponte is, however, “not entirely clear.” Id.; cf.
Day v. McDonough, 547 U.S. 198, 202 (2006) (holding that courts may sua sponte
dismiss habeas petitions as untimely when they “confront[] no intelligent waiver on
the [s]tate’s part,” but warning that it would be “an abuse of discretion to override a
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[s]tate’s deliberate waiver of a limitations defense”). We need not resolve this
question today; to the extent we have discretion to sua sponte enforce McMahan’s
collateral attack-waiver, we decline to exercise that discretion. Thus, we turn to the
merits of McMahan’s appeal.
II. McMahan’s Aggravated-Battery Conviction
In relevant part, the ACCA imposes a 15-year mandatory minimum prison
sentence on offenders with at least three prior violent-felony convictions. § 924(e)(1).
After Johnson, a violent felony is an offense that (1) is “punishable by imprisonment
for a term exceeding one year,” § 924(e)(2)(B), and (2) either “has as an element the
use, attempted use, or threatened use of physical force against the person of another,”
§ 924(e)(2)(B)(i); or “is burglary, arson, or extortion, [or] involves use of
explosives,” § 924(e)(2)(B)(ii). Because aggravated battery doesn’t satisfy any
portion of § 924(e)(2)(B)(ii)’s enumerated-offense clause, the only dispute here is
whether McMahan’s aggravated-battery conviction satisfies the ACCA’s elements
clause—that is, whether “the use, attempted use, or threatened use of physical force
against the person of another” is an element of § 21-3414(a)(1)(C). § 924(e)(2)(B)(i).
At the time of McMahan’s prior offense, § 21-3414(a)(1)(C) defined
aggravated battery, in relevant part, as “intentionally causing physical contact with
another person when done in a rude, insulting or angry manner with a deadly weapon,
or in any manner whereby great bodily harm, disfigurement[,] or death can be
inflicted.” And the parties agree that “intentionally causing physical contact with
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another person when done in . . . any manner whereby great bodily harm,
disfigurement[,] or death can be inflicted,” id., is “the least of the acts” that § 21-
3414(a)(1)(C) “criminalized” at the time of McMahan’s offense, United States v.
Hammons, 862 F.3d 1052, 1054 (10th Cir. 2017). Likewise, the parties agree we
therefore need only resolve whether this particular language satisfies the elements
clause. See Hammons, 862 F.3d at 1054 (explaining that under categorical approach,
we look to whether “the least of the acts criminalized by the [applicable] statute”
satisfies the elements clause).
Citing our opinion in Treto-Martinez, the district court ruled that § 21-
3414(a)(1)(C) proscribes a violent felony under the ACCA’s elements clause. In
Treto-Martinez, we considered whether a violation of the exact same version of § 21-
3414(a)(1)(C) constituted a crime of violence under a substantively identical
elements clause in the United States Sentencing Guidelines.1 See 421 F.3d at 1158–
59. Compare U.S.S.G. § 2L1.2 cmt. n.1(B)(iii) (2005) (defining crime of violence, in
relevant part, as “any offense under federal, state, or local law that has as an element
the use, attempted use, or threatened use of physical force against the person of
another”), with § 924(e)(2)(B)(i) (defining violent felony, in relevant part, as felony
that “has as an element the use, attempted use, or threatened use of physical force
1
Because of the similarity between the ACCA’s elements clause and the
Guidelines’ elements clause, we often look to cases interpreting one to interpret the
other. Williams, 559 F.3d at 1147 n.7. For our purposes—i.e., asking whether § 21-
3414(a)(1)(C) contains, as an element, “the use, attempted use, or threatened use of
physical force against the person of another,” § 924(e)(2)(B)(i)—the analyses are
identical under the ACCA and the Guidelines. McMahan doesn’t argue otherwise.
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against the person of another”). In concluding that § 21-3414(a)(1)(C) constitutes a
crime of violence for purposes of § 2L1.2, we noted that the statute requires contact
in a manner “whereby great bodily harm, disfigurement[,] or death can be inflicted.”
Treto-Martinez, 421 F.3d at 1160 (quoting § 21-3414(a)(1)(C)). And we reasoned
that any such contact must inherently involve “at the very least . . . the ‘threatened
use of physical force.’” Id. at 1160 (quoting § 2L1.2 cmt. n.1(B)(iii)).
McMahan doesn’t seek to distinguish Treto-Martinez from his case. Rather, he
argues that Treto-Martinez is no longer good law. But we recently reaffirmed that
Treto-Martinez remains the law of this circuit in United States v. Trayon Williams,
No. 17-3071, 2018 WL 1885065, ---F.3d--- (10th Cir. Apr. 20, 2018), which we
decided after oral argument in this case. See id. at *1, *5–6 (rejecting defendant’s
argument that Treto-Martinez is no longer good law and holding that current version
of Kansas’ aggravated-battery statute—which prohibits, in relevant part, “knowingly
causing bodily harm to another person . . . in any manner whereby great bodily harm,
disfigurement[,] or death can be inflicted”—is a crime of violence under Guidelines’
elements clause (quoting Kan. Stat. Ann. § 21-5413(b)(1)(B))). Therefore, Treto-
Martinez continues to bind us here. Accordingly, we conclude that aggravated
battery, as defined by § 21-3414(a)(1)(C), is a violent felony under the ACCA’s
elements clause.2
2
Even if we concluded that § 21-3414(a)(1)(C) is no longer a violent felony
under the elements clause, it’s not clear that this would entitle McMahan to relief
under § 2255. The parties don’t address what effect, if any, our recent decision in
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Conclusion
McMahan concedes that his two convictions for burglary of a dwelling
constitute ACCA predicates. And Treto-Martinez, which remains good law in this
circuit, compels us to conclude that § 21-3414(a)(1)(C) contains “as an element the
use, attempted use, or threatened use of physical force against the person of another.”
§ 924(e)(2)(B)(i). Thus, aggravated battery under § 21-3414(a)(1)(C) is a violent
felony, and McMahan has the three violent-felony convictions required to sustain his
sentence under § 924(e)(1). Accordingly, we affirm the district court’s order denying
McMahan’s § 2255 motion.
Entered for the Court
Nancy L. Moritz
Circuit Judge
United States v. Snyder, 871 F.3d 1122 (10th Cir. 2017), might have on McMahan’s
claim. Because we affirm on other grounds, we need not discuss it either.
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