Case: 15-12943 Date Filed: 02/08/2016 Page: 1 of 5
[DO NOT PUBLISH]
IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT
________________________
No. 15-12943
Non-Argument Calendar
________________________
D.C. Docket No. 1:00-cr-00425-JIC-6
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
Plaintiff-Appellee,
versus
SAMUEL KNOWLES,
Defendant-Appellant.
________________________
Appeal from the United States District Court
for the Southern District of Florida
________________________
(February 8, 2016)
Before MARCUS, MARTIN and ANDERSON, Circuit Judges.
PER CURIAM:
Samuel Knowles, proceeding pro se, appeals the district court’s denial of his
motion for retroactive recusal. Knowles filed the motion after he was convicted
and sentenced in the district court and also well after his 28 U.S.C. § 2255 motion
Case: 15-12943 Date Filed: 02/08/2016 Page: 2 of 5
to vacate was denied. Knowles’s motion alleged that the district judge should be
retroactively recused from Knowles’s underlying criminal proceedings for bias, as
evidenced by a number of the court’s rulings in the criminal case. Knowles sought
relief under 28 U.S.C. § 455, or, alternatively, under Federal Rule of Civil
Procedure 60(b). After careful review, we affirm.
We are obligated to determine, as an initial matter, whether the district court
had jurisdiction to consider a case on the merits. Boyd v. Homes of Legend, Inc.,
188 F.3d 1294, 1297-98 (11th Cir. 1999). We review de novo questions
concerning subject matter jurisdiction of the district court. Bishop v. Reno, 210
F.3d 1295, 1298 (11th Cir. 2000). We construe pleadings filed by pro se parties
liberally. See Sanders v. United States, 113 F.3d 184, 187 (11th Cir. 1997).
A judge may be disqualified “in any proceeding in which his impartiality
might reasonably be questioned,” or in any circumstances “[w]here he has a
personal bias or prejudice concerning a party, or personal knowledge of disputed
evidentiary facts concerning the proceeding.” 28 U.S.C. §§ 455(a), (b)(1). Under
§ 455, a “proceeding” is defined to include “pretrial, trial, appellate review, or
other stages of litigation.” Id. § 455(d)(1). Therefore, a district court lacks
jurisdiction to consider a motion to recuse the court if it is filed when no case is
pending before the district court. United States v. Elso, 571 F.3d 1163, 1166 (11th
Cir. 2009). In Elso, a federal prisoner filed a motion to recuse the district court
2
Case: 15-12943 Date Filed: 02/08/2016 Page: 3 of 5
judge from any further proceedings after we had affirmed his convictions and
sentences on direct appeal and the Supreme Court had denied his petition for
certiorari. Id. at 1165. We affirmed the district court’s denial of his § 455 motion
because the district court lacked jurisdiction to grant relief. Id.
Rule 60(b) allows a party to seek relief or reopen a civil case based upon the
following limited circumstances: (1) mistake or excusable neglect; (2) newly
discovered evidence; (3) fraud; (4) the judgment is void; (5) the judgment has been
discharged; and (6) “any other reason that justifies relief.” Fed. R. Civ. P. 60(b).
Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 60(b) does not provide for relief from judgment in
a criminal case. United States v. Mosavi, 138 F.3d 1365, 1366 (11th Cir. 1998).
Collateral attacks on the legality of a federal sentence typically must be
brought under § 2255. Darby v. Hawk-Sawyer, 405 F.3d 942, 944 (11th Cir.
2005). Under the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996
(“AEDPA”), a prisoner who previously filed a § 2255 motion must apply for and
obtain authorization from a court of appeals before filing a “second or successive”
§ 2255 motion. 28 U.S.C. §§ 2244(b)(3)(A), 2255(h). Without this prior
authorization, a district court lacks jurisdiction to consider a second or successive §
2255 motion. United States v. Holt, 417 F.3d 1172, 1175 (11th Cir. 2005).
A Rule 60(b) motion from the denial of a § 2255 motion is considered a
successive motion if it seeks to present a new ground for relief from a judgment of
3
Case: 15-12943 Date Filed: 02/08/2016 Page: 4 of 5
conviction or if it attacks the federal court’s previous resolution of a claim on the
merits. Gonzalez v. Crosby, 545 U.S. 524, 531-32 (2005) (addressing a § 2254
habeas petition); see also Gilbert v. United States, 640 F.3d 1293, 1323 (11th Cir.
2011) (en banc) (holding that the rule espoused in Gonzalez applies equally to
federal prisoners). In other words, when a federal prisoner seeks to assert or
reassert a claim for relief but does not point out a defect in the integrity of an
earlier § 2255 proceeding, his motion is the equivalent of a second or successive
motion. Gilbert, 640 F.3d at 1323. Conversely, a Rule 60(b) motion is permissible
if “neither the motion itself nor the federal judgment from which it seeks relief
substantively addresses federal grounds for setting aside the movant’s . . .
conviction.” Gonzalez, 545 U.S. at 533. Thus, a Rule 60(b) motion would be
proper, for example, if it: (1) asserts that a federal court’s previous ruling, that
precluded a merits determination (i.e., a procedural ruling such as a failure to
exhaust, a procedural bar, or a statute-of-limitations bar), was in error; or (2)
attacks a defect in the federal proceeding’s integrity, such as a fraud upon the
court. See id. at 532-535 & n.4, n.5.
Here, the district court did not have jurisdiction to hear Knowles’s § 455
motion. As the record shows, Knowles filed his motion for recusal after his
criminal prosecution was concluded, after his convictions and sentences were
affirmed by this Court, and after his § 2255 motion to vacate was denied by the
4
Case: 15-12943 Date Filed: 02/08/2016 Page: 5 of 5
district court. See Elso, 571 F.3d at 1166. Although he had pending motions to
unseal documents at the time he filed his recusal motion, they were not part of the
litigation, but were administrative in nature and were not collateral challenges to
his convictions. Additionally, his § 455 motion did not relate to recusal regarding
these pending motions; rather, it challenged proceedings that had already been
completed. As a result, no case was pending before the district court at the time
Knowles filed his motion for recusal.
As for Knowles’s alternative request for relief under Rule 60(b), it was
properly denied because Knowles’s motion related to his criminal proceedings and
Rule 60(b) does not provide for relief from judgment in a criminal case. Mosavi,
138 F.3d at 1366. Although Rule 60(b) can provide relief from a § 2255 judgment,
Knowles only claimed that the trial court erred in conducting his underlying
criminal proceedings. Gonzalez, 545 U.S. at 532-535 & n.4, n.5. To the extent
Knowles’s motion could be construed as a successive § 2255 motion, it was
improperly filed without our authorization. See 28 U.S.C. §§ 2244(b)(3)(A),
2255(h). Thus, the district court lacked jurisdiction to consider the motion. Holt,
417 F.3d at 1175.
AFFIRMED.
5