Stoney Lester v. United States

In Johnson v. United States, 135 S. Ct. 2551 (2015), this Court held that the residual clause of the “violent felony” provision in the Armed Career Criminal Act of 1984 is unconstitutionally vague. In Welch v. United States, 136 S. Ct. 1257 (2016), this Court held that Johnson announced a new substantive rule of constitutional law that is retroactive to cases on collateral review. Petitioner was sentenced under the identically worded residual clause of the mandatory Sentencing Guidelines’ career offender provision before the Guidelines were rendered advisory by United States v. Booker, 543 U.S. 220 (2005). Petitioner was granted authorization to file a successive motion to vacate his sentence on the basis of the rule in Johnson. The district court denied petitioner’s motion on the basis of binding Eleventh Circuit precedent, but granted him a certificate of appealability. The questions presented are:

1. Whether the retroactivity analysis of Teague v. Lane, 489 U.S. 288 (1989), is categorical, such that Welch has made Johnson’s rule retroactive for purposes of all cases on collateral review.

2. Whether the rule announced in Johnson and made retroactive in Welch renders the residual clause of the career offender provision of the mandatory, pre-Booker Sentencing Guidelines unconstitutionally vague.