Pavulak v. von Blanckensee, No. 19-16314 (9th Cir. 2021)
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The Ninth Circuit affirmed the district court's dismissal of a 28 U.S.C. 2241 petition in which petitioner challenged two sentencing enhancements—one under 18 U.S.C. 2251(e), another under 18 U.S.C. 3559(e)(1)—applied after his conviction on multiple counts of federal sex offenses.
The panel held that petitioner's claim is foreclosed because the legal basis for his claim arose before he had exhausted his section 2255 motion, so he cannot show that he did not have an unobstructed procedural shot at presenting his challenge to the section 3559(e)(1) sentencing enhancement. The panel rejected petitioner's request for an extension of Martinez v. Ryan, 566 U.S. 1 (2012), concluding that an extension of Martinez would make little sense. The panel explained that it would open the door for every unsuccessful pro se petitioner under section 2255 to argue that his lack of counsel in his original section 2255 petition meant that he did not have an unobstructed procedural shot at presenting his claim and is therefore entitled to bring an escape hatch petition under section 2241. The panel noted that other circuits have similarly held that prisoners may not utilize Martinez to bring a section 2241 petition. Because petitioner cannot show that he lacked an unobstructed procedural shot with respect to the section 3559(e)(1) mandatory life sentencing enhancement, the panel did not need to reach the actual innocence prong for that enhancement or either prong for the section 2251(e) enhancement.
Court Description: Habeas Corpus. The panel affirmed the district court’s dismissal of federal prisoner Paul Pavulak’s 28 U.S.C. § 2241 petition in which he challenged two sentencing enhancements—one under 18 U.S.C. § 2251(e), another under 18 U.S.C. § 3559(e)(1)—applied after his conviction on multiple counts of federal sex offenses. Generally, a federal prisoner may only challenge the legality of his confinement through a 28 U.S.C. § 2255 motion. Under the “escape hatch” provision of § 2255(e), a federal prisoner may file a § 2241 petition, but only if the § 2255 remedy is inadequate or ineffective to test the legality of his detention. In a § 2241 petition, the prisoner must show (1) actual innocence, and (2) that he has not had an unobstructed procedural shot at presenting his challenge. To determine whether a petitioner has not had an unobstructed procedural shot, a court looks to (1) whether the legal basis for petitioner’s claim did not arise until after he had exhausted his direct appeal and first § 2255 motion; and (2) whether the law changed in any way relevant to petitioner’s claim after that first § 2255 motion. The parties agreed that Pavulak must meet both prongs for each of the sentencing enhancements. The panel held that Pavulak’s claim is foreclosed. Pavulak relied on Mathis v. United States, 136 S. Ct. 2243 PAVULAK V. VON BLANCKENSEE 3 (2016), and United States v. Dahl, 833 F.3d 345 (3d Cir. 2016), to challenge his sentencing enhancement under § 3559(e)(1), yet he concedes that both of those decisions came down before he had exhausted his original § 2255 motion. Thus, the legal basis for his claim arose before he had exhausted his § 2255 motion, so he cannot show that he did not have an unobstructed procedural shot at presenting his challenge to the § 3559(e)(1) sentencing enhancement. The panel rejected Pavulak’s argument for an extension of Martinez v. Ryan, 566 U.S. 1 (2012), to the § 2241 context. The panel explained that this court has already held in Buenrostro v. United States, 697 F.3d 1137 (9th Cir. 2012), that Martinez does not apply to federal convictions, and that while Buenrostro concerned an application to file a second or successive petition under § 2255, the holding with respect to Martinez is applicable in the § 2241 context as well. The panel wrote that extending Martinez would open the door for every unsuccessful pro se petitioner under § 2255 to argue that his lack of counsel in his original § 2255 petition meant that he did not have an obstructed procedural shot at presenting his claim and is therefore entitled to bring an escape hatch petition. The panel explained that this would effectively overrule this court’s precedent that there is no right to counsel in federal post-conviction proceedings, and would undermine this court’s admonition that use of the escape hatch is an exception to the general rule. The panel concluded that because Pavulak cannot show he lacked an unobstructed procedural shot with respect to the § 3559(e)(1) enhancement, it did not need to reach the actual innocence prong for that enhancement or either prong for the § 2251(e) enhancement. 4 PAVULAK V. VON BLANCKENSEE
The court issued a subsequent related opinion or order on October 1, 2021.
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