FILED
United States Court of Appeals
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS Tenth Circuit
FOR THE TENTH CIRCUIT February 9, 2021
_________________________________
Christopher M. Wolpert
Clerk of Court
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
Plaintiff - Appellee,
v. No. 20-6168
(D.C. No. 5:15-CR-00013-HE-1)
EUGENE LOUIS PERIARD, JR., (W.D. Okla.)
Defendant - Appellant.
___________________________________
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
Plaintiff - Appellee,
v. No. 20-6169
(D.C. No. 5:19-CR-00170-HE-1)
EUGENE LOUIS PERIARD, JR., (W.D. Okla.)
Defendant - Appellant.
_________________________________
ORDER DENYING CERTIFICATE OF APPEALABILITY *
_________________________________
Before PHILLIPS, MURPHY, and McHUGH, Circuit Judges.
_________________________________
*
This order is not binding precedent except under the doctrines of law of the case,
res judicata, and collateral estoppel. It may be cited, however, for its persuasive value
consistent with Fed. R. App. P. 32.1 and 10th Cir. R. 32.1.
Eugene Periard, Jr., a federal inmate, seeks a certificate of appealability (COA)
under 28 U.S.C. § 2253(c)(1)(B) to challenge the denials of his 28 U.S.C. § 2255 motions
in two federal criminal cases, CR-15-13-HE and CR-19-170-HE. 1 We deny a COA.
BACKGROUND
In 2013, Periard was convicted in CR-15-13-HE of failing to register as a sex
offender, in violation of the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA),
18 U.S.C. § 2250. 2 For this, the United States District Court for the Northern District of
New York sentenced him to eight months’ imprisonment and five years’ supervised
release. When the supervised release began, that court transferred jurisdiction over it to
the United States District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma.
In July 2016, the Oklahoma district court revoked Periard’s initial supervised
release, finding that Periard had violated supervised-release conditions. For the violation,
the court sentenced him to twenty-four months’ imprisonment and lifetime supervised
release.
Periard did no better on supervised release the second time. In June 2019, he
stipulated to having violated his conditions of supervision by possessing and viewing
child pornography. The district court delayed holding a revocation hearing after learning
that the government was expected to file charges related to Periard’s possession of child
pornography. A few days later, the United States filed charges in an Information in
1
For the case numbers, we will use the same convention as the district court.
2
In 2007, Periard had been convicted in Oklahoma state court of second-degree
rape.
2
CR-19-170-HE, for possession of child pornography, in violation of 18 U.S.C.
§ 2252A(a)(5)(B) and (b)(2). This offense carried a mandatory-minimum sentence of ten
years’ imprisonment. In exchange for Periard’s guilty plea, the government agreed to
recommend that the sentence run concurrently with any prison time imposed for the
supervised-release violation. At a combined sentencing hearing, the district court
sentenced Periard to ten years’ imprisonment and lifetime supervised release in the child-
pornography case, with the imprisonment to run concurrently with a two-year sentence
for violating his supervised-release conditions.
In April 2020, Periard filed identical motions in both cases (CR-15-13-HE and
CR-19-170-HE), asking for resentencing based on the Supreme Court’s ruling in United
States v. Haymond, 139 S. Ct. 2369 (2019). 3 The district court notified Periard that it
would view the motions as 28 U.S.C. § 2255 motions and gave him an opportunity to
withdraw or amend them. Periard elected to proceed with them. In a consolidated order,
the district court denied both motions and denied a COA, noting that it had not sentenced
Periard under 18 U.S.C. § 3583(k), which is what the Court had declared unconstitutional
in Haymond. Periard then filed a consolidated Motion for the Court’s Reconsideration of
the Judgment and a consolidated Motion for Issuance of Certificate of Appealability, both
of which the district court denied. Periard appealed in both cases. After the clerk’s office
consolidated the appeals for briefing, he filed an Appellant’s Combined Opening Brief
and Application for a Certificate of Appealability.
3
In the Discussion section, we describe Haymond in detail.
3
DISCUSSION
The question is whether to grant Periard a COA. This is so because “there can be
no appeal from a final order in a § 2255 proceeding unless a circuit justice or judge issues
a certificate of appealability.” Welch v. United States, 136 S. Ct. 1257, 1263 (2016)
(citation omitted); see 28 U.S.C. § 2253(c)(1)(B) (“Unless a circuit justice or judge issues
a certificate of appealability, an appeal may not be taken to the court of appeals
from . . . the final order in a proceeding under section 2255.”). We will grant a COA only
if Periard “has made a substantial showing of the denial of a constitutional right.”
28 U.S.C. § 2253(c)(2). To make this showing when, as here, a district court has denied a
§ 2255 motion on the merits, a plaintiff “must demonstrate that reasonable jurists would
find the district court’s assessment of the constitutional claims debatable or wrong.”
Miller-El v. Cockrell, 537 U.S. 322, 338 (2003) (citation omitted).
Periard argues that his sentences are unconstitutional under Haymond. As the
district court explained in its well-reasoned decision, Haymond addressed the
constitutionality of one of the two provisions in 18 U.S.C. § 3583(k). 4 See Haymond, 139
4
Section 3583(k) provides:
(k) Notwithstanding subsection (b), the authorized term of
supervised release for any offense under section 1201 involving a minor
victim, and for any offense under section 1591, 1594(c), 2241, 2242, 2243,
2244, 2245, 2250, 2251, 2251A, 2252, 2252A, 2260, 2421, 2422, 2423, or
2425, is any term of years not less than 5, or life. If a defendant required to
register under the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act commits
any criminal offense under chapter 109A, 110, or 117, or section 1201 or
1591, for which imprisonment for a term longer than 1 year can be
imposed, the court shall revoke the term of supervised release and require
4
S. Ct. at 2384–85. The first provision directs that when sentencing a defendant who has
committed one of several listed offenses, including violation of SORNA and possession
of child pornography, a judge must impose a term of supervised release of between five
years and life. 18 U.S.C. § 3583(k). The second provision mandates that if during
supervised release, a defendant required to register under SORNA commits an offense
from a different list, which also includes possession of child pornography, the judge must
revoke the term of supervised release and “impose an additional prison term of at least
five years and up to life.” Haymond, 139 S. Ct. at 2374; see 18 U.S.C. § 3583(k). The
Court found that this second provision violated the Fifth and Sixth Amendments because
it allowed imprisonment beyond the maximum term allowed by the original offense
without a jury trial or proof beyond a reasonable doubt. See Haymond, 139 S. Ct. at
2374–79.
Periard has not made a substantial showing that Haymond establishes that he was
denied a constitutional right. As the district court correctly concluded, the supervised-
release-revocation sentence (in CR-15-13-HE) is constitutional. Contrary to Periard’s
beliefs, Haymond addresses a provision of § 3583 unrelated to his sentence. If the
sentence were issued under § 3583(k), which was at issue in Haymond, the sentence
would be for five years or more. See 18 U.S.C. § 3583(k). The sentence is for less than
the defendant to serve a term of imprisonment under subsection (e)(3)
without regard to the exception contained therein. Such term shall be not
less than 5 years.
18 U.S.C. § 3583(k).
5
this—twenty-four months. It was ordered under § 3583(e), which is the general provision
on revocation of supervised release. 5 In Haymond, the Supreme Court did not rule that
§ 3583(e) was unconstitutional, 139 S. Ct. at 2384 (explicitly clarifying this), and the
Court has not done so elsewhere.
The 2019 child-pornography sentence (in CR-19-170-HE) is also constitutional.
This sentence has two components: (1) ten years’ imprisonment and (2) lifetime
supervised release. The first component is constitutional because it was imposed under
18 U.S.C. § 2252A, not under § 3583(k) as Periard suggests. The ten years’
imprisonment is the mandatory minimum imprisonment for the child-pornography
sentence.
The second component of the child-pornography sentence—lifetime supervised
release—is also constitutional. This is true even though the sentence was ordered under
§ 3583(k). It was imposed under the first provision of § 3583(k), left untouched by
Haymond. Periard is wrong that Haymond “zeroed out” all of § 3583(k) and that
§ 3583(k)’s provisions are not severable. Several courts have found that the first
provision is still constitutional and in effect. See, e.g., Jones v. United States,
No. 2:14-CR-616-TC, 2020 WL 5663390, at *1–2 (D. Utah Sept. 23, 2020), certificate of
5
This sentence complies with § 3583(e). See 18 U.S.C. § 3583(e)(3) (allowing
imprisonment for no “more than 2 years” when the original offense was a class C felony
and the supervised-release term authorized for the original offense is over 2 years);
§ 3583(k) (authorizing lifetime supervised release for SORNA failure-to-register
offenses); 18 U.S.C.A. § 2250(a) (permitting a maximum ten years’ imprisonment for
these offenses); 18 U.S.C. § 3559(a)(3) (defining class C felonies as offenses with
maximum imprisonment terms of “less than twenty-five years but ten or more years”).
6
appealability denied, No. 2:14-CR-616-TC, 2020 WL 5659381 (D. Utah Sept. 23, 2020);
United States v. Goodall, No. 1:16-CR-00010-JAW, 2019 WL 7340133, at *2 (D. Me.
Dec. 30, 2019); Harmon v. True, No. 19-CV-00461-SMY, 2019 WL 6615422, at *2
(S.D. Ill. Dec. 5, 2019); Jividen v. Streeval, No. CV 19-060-HRW, 2019 WL 3976509,
at *4 (E.D. Ky. Aug. 22, 2019); cf. United States v. Aguirre, 776 F. App’x 866, 867 (5th
Cir. 2019) (“[T]he Haymond plurality emphasized that its decision was limited to
§ 3583(k) and its mandatory minimum provision.”), cert. denied, 140 S. Ct. 943 (2020);
United States v. Austin, No. 06-CR-991 (JSR), 2020 WL 6735074, at *3 (S.D.N.Y. Nov.
17, 2020) (“[T]he Court held unconstitutional the last two sentences of
18 U.S.C. § 3583(k)[.]”). We have not located a case deciding otherwise. And as the
district court observed, in Headley v. United States, 804 F. App’x 973 (10th Cir. 2020),
decided after Haymond, we assumed that § 3583(k) authorized up to lifetime supervised
release. Id. at 981. Although in Headley we did not address Haymond, our decision there
still counsels that the first provision of § 3583(k) is valid. 6 Id. Thus, Periard has not made
a substantial showing of the denial of a constitutional right and we deny a COA.
6
Moreover, we have concluded, albeit in a non-binding decision, that Haymond is
not retroactively applicable on collateral review. See United States v. Salazar, 784
F. App’x 579, 583–84 (10th Cir. 2019), cert. denied, 140 S. Ct. 1232 (2020).
7
CONCLUSION
For the foregoing reasons, we deny a COA.
Entered for the Court
Gregory A. Phillips
Circuit Judge
8