Rogers v. US
Case Date: 06/17/1999
Court: United States Court of Appeals
Docket No: 98-2215
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For the First Circuit No. 98-2215 SCOTT N. ROGERS, Petitioner, Appellant, v. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Respondent, Appellee. APPEAL FROM THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF NEW HAMPSHIRE [Hon. Shane Devine, Senior U.S. District Judge] Before Selya, Circuit Judge, Kravitch, Senior Circuit Judge, and Lipez, Circuit Judge. Gordon R. Blakeney, Jr. for appellant. Peter E. Papps, First Assistant United States Attorney, with whom Paul M. Gagnon, United States Attorney, was on brief for appellee. June 17, 1999 LIPEZ, Circuit Judge. Scott N. Rogers appeals from the district court's denial of his motion filed pursuant to 28 U.S.C. 2255 to vacate his sentence and set aside his conviction. The court held that his motion was untimely under the limitations period imposed in the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 ("AEDPA"), Pub. L. No. 104-132, 110 Stat. 1214 (Apr. 24, 1996), which allows prisoners one year from the date on which their convictions became final to file motions under 2255. As interpreted by the district court (following the model of several other circuit courts of appeals), AEDPA allows prisoners such as Rogers whose convictions became final before AEDPA's effective date to file motions under 2255 within one year of that date. Nonetheless, even on this standard, the court held that Rogers' motion was untimely. Rogers therefore challenges on appeal the validity of this interpretation of AEDPA, allowing filing only within a one year "grace period" from AEDPA's effective date. Prior to denial of the original 2255 motion, Rogers had moved to amend it by adding a claim based on newly discovered facts regarding the execution of his sentence. The court denied this motion to amend as moot in light of its denial of the original 2255 motion. Rogers then moved to have the court reconsider the timeliness issue as to the new claims on the basis that the motion to amend was filed within one year of Rogers' discovery of new facts. The district court denied the motion. Rogers contests this decision as well on appeal. The district court issued a certificate of appealability limited to the sentencing issues. We ordered briefing on all issues, and now affirm. I. Background On April 4, 1989, Manchester, New Hampshire police arrested Scott N. Rogers, a convicted felon who had escaped from the New Hampshire House of Corrections in January of that year. At the time of his capture, Rogers was in constructive possession of a handgun. Rogers was subsequently indicted by a federal grand jury as a convicted felon in possession of a firearm under 18 U.S.C. 922(g)(1), and was convicted on May 20, 1990 after a jury trial. He was sentenced on July 16, 1990 to a mandatory fifteen year sentence as an armed career criminal under 18 U.S.C. 924(e)(1). Throughout the federal proceedings, Rogers was housed in the New Hampshire State Prison. The district court's 1990 judgment has no entry in the space reserved for "recommendations to the Bureau of Prisons," and there is no record that the district court either ordered or recommended that the New Hampshire State Prison should be the place of confinement for Rogers' federal sentence. There is also no indication of the court's intent as to whether the federal sentence should run concurrently with any future sentences for related pending state charges. The district court's judgment and sentence indicates that Rogers was "remanded to the custody of the United States Marshal," but according to the terms of the writ of habeas corpus ad prosequendum, Rogers was to be returned to the warden of the New Hampshire State Prison upon completion of the federal court proceedings. The record does not indicate that Rogers was transferred to federal prison at any point. Rogers' prosecution on related state charges followed. Through new counsel, Rogers pleaded guilty to all remaining state felony charges on August 8, 1990. According to the records of the County Attorney, the New Hampshire Superior Court Judge had indicated to the parties prior to the plea agreement that, in light of the long federal sentence, he would not give any "consecutive time" - that is, he would not sentence Rogers to any time to be served after the federal sentence. Accordingly, the parties agreed that Rogers' sentences for eight of his nine state felony charges should run concurrent to each other and to the federal sentence. Rogers was thus sentenced to 3 |