Holly Butcher v. United States, 368 F.3d 1290, 11th Cir. (2004)
Holly Butcher v. United States, 368 F.3d 1290, 11th Cir. (2004)
3d 1290
Six years ago, Holly W. Butcher and John T. Renick were convicted in federal
district court of multiple counts of fraud and money laundering. This is the third
time their case has been before us since then. It is here this time on the
government's appeal of the district court's judgment vacating their convictions
and sentences under 28 U.S.C. 2255 on grounds of ineffective assistance of
counsel. We reverse.
I.
2
We will recite only those facts necessary for an understanding of this opinion.
A more extensive discussion of the facts may be found in the opinions we
issued in our two prior decisions in this case. The first of those two opinions
was unpublished, United States v. Butcher, No. 98-3806, 1999 WL 1188921
(11th Cir. Nov. 24, 1999), but we reproduced that opinion as an appendix to the
published opinion we issued in the next appeal in the case, United States v.
Renick, 273 F.3d 1009 (11th Cir.2001). (We will be citing that first opinion as
Butcher, 203 F.3d at 839 (appendix)).
3
Butcher was the CEO and administrator of the Rivendell hospitals in Ft. Walton
Beach and Panama City, Florida. Renick, a psychiatrist, was employed by
Rivendell as a physician and for a time as Medical Director. Renick was
excluded from billing both Medicare and the Civilian Health and Medical
Program of the Uniformed Services (CHAMPUS) due to a prior conviction for
mail fraud. Both Butcher and Renick were aware of the terms of Renick's
exclusion.
In July 1998, Butcher and Renick (whom we will be calling "petitioners") were
charged in a 38-count indictment with crimes including conspiracy to commit
money laundering and conspiracy to defraud the United States by submitting
false claims to Medicare and CHAMPUS. At trial, when the government closed
its case both petitioners moved for judgment of acquittal on all counts pursuant
to Fed.R.Crim.P. 29. The district court expressed its belief that the
government's case was weak, but reserved ruling on the motions until after the
verdict. The petitioners, in turn, rested without presenting evidence.
The jury returned verdicts against the petitioners on all 38 counts of the
indictment. Thereafter, the district court issued an order granting the reserved
motions for judgment of acquittal on all 38 counts, expressing its view that the
evidence was insufficient to support a finding that petitioners possessed the
requisite intent to commit each offense for which they had been charged and
convicted.
On appeal, we reversed after concluding that the jury's verdict was supported
by sufficient evidence. We remanded with instructions for the district court to
reinstate the jury's verdicts of guilty as to both defendants and on all counts.
Butcher, 273 F.3d at 1035 (appendix).
After remand but before sentencing, petitioners filed motions for a new trial
pursuant to Fed.R.Crim.P. 33, as well as alternative motions to vacate pursuant
to 28 U.S.C. 2255. The district court conducted a hearing on those motions
for new trial and, over the government's objection, allowed the defendants to
supplement the record in support of their motions with affidavits of witnesses
who were not called at trial. At the conclusion of the hearing the district court
stated that the motions would be granted.
After reflection, however, the court issued a written order of denial, concluding
that the motions for new trial were untimely. Rule 33 specifies that a motion
for new trial based on grounds other than newly discovered evidence "must be
filed within 7 days after the verdict or finding of guilty, or within such further
time as the court sets during the 7-day period," Fed.R.Crim.P. 33(b)(2), and
petitioners' motions had not met that deadline. In its order the district court
explained that it would have granted the motions for new trial but for the fact
that their untimeliness deprived it of jurisdiction to do so.
At the same time the district court denied the motions for a new trial, it also
denied the petitioners' alternative motions under 2255 to vacate their
convictions and sentences. It did so because the petitioners had not yet been
sentenced and were not in custody and therefore did not meet the "custody
under sentence" requirement of 2255.
10
The petitioners were sentenced on June 22, 2000 and were released pending
appeal. During their direct appeal they challenged their convictions and
sentences on a number of grounds that are not relevant to our present
discussion. Renick, 273 F.3d at 1011. The government cross-appealed, asserting
that the district court erred in calculating the petitioners' sentences. We affirmed
the petitioners' convictions but remanded to correct a sentencing error. Id. at
1028.
11
The petitioners were resentenced. Thereafter, they once again moved to vacate
their sentences pursuant to 2255, this time on the basis that their trial counsel
had provided ineffective assistance by failing to file their motions for a new
trial in a timely manner. A magistrate judge, to whom the district court referred
the 2255 motions, issued a report and recommendation advising that the
motions be granted. Over the government's objection, the district court issued
an order adopting the report and recommendation in its entirety and granting
petitioners' 2255 motions. It entered formal judgment in favor of the
petitioners, setting aside their convictions and sentences. The government
appealed.1
II.
12
13
both prongs of the test set out by the Supreme Court in Strickland v.
Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984). The
performance prong requires a petitioner to establish that counsel performed
outside the wide range of reasonable professional assistance and made errors so
serious that he failed to function as the kind of counsel guaranteed by the Sixth
Amendment. Id. at 687-89, 104 S.Ct. at 2064-65. The prejudice prong requires
a petitioner to demonstrate that seriously deficient performance of his attorney
prejudiced the defense. Id. at 687, 104 S.Ct. at 2064.
14
Unless a petitioner satisfies the showings required on both prongs, relief is due
to be denied. Id. As a result, once a court decides that one of the requisite
showings has not been made it need not decide whether the other one has been.
Id. at 697, 104 S.Ct. at 2069 (A court need not "address both components of the
inquiry if the [petitioner] makes an insufficient showing on one."); Duren v.
Hopper, 161 F.3d 655, 660 (11th Cir.1998) ("if a defendant cannot satisfy the
prejudice prong, the court need not address the performance prong"). In this
case we need not look beyond the prejudice prong.
15
III.
16
In denying the petitioners' new trial motions as untimely, the district court
stated that if they had been timely filed it would have granted them based upon
the weight of the evidence, and demonstrated its sincerity by setting out in
some detail the reasons it would have done so. That, the petitioners contend, is
all we need to know had their counsel not messed up, the district court
would have ordered a new trial.
17
The government acknowledges that the district court would have given the
petitioners a new trial upon timely motions. However, it contends that would
have done the petitioners no good because this Court would have reversed the
grant of a new trial when the government appealed. According to the
The petitioners argue that it does not matter what this Court would have done
with the government's appeal from the grant of a new trial, because prejudice
ought to be determined at the trial court level as though the government had no
right to appeal. The government says not so, because it does have the right to
appeal the grant of new trial motions, and it certainly would have done so in
this case. The government's representation to us that it would have appealed is
amply corroborated by the dogged persistence it has displayed in defending the
jury's verdict throughout the six-year, post-conviction history of this case. We
have no doubt that the government would have appealed had the district court
granted the motions for new trial, just as we have no doubt that the district
court would have granted the motions had they been timely filed.
19
20
We think so for two reasons. First, to make the prejudice determination without
taking into account the government's right to appeal would effectively deprive
the government of the right to appeal in situations like the one here. It would
make the government's right to appeal dependant upon what defense counsel
does or fails to do. If defense counsel files a new trial motion in a timely
fashion, the government would be able to obtain review of the district court's
ruling that the weight of the evidence predominated heavily against the jury
verdict. But if defense counsel files an untimely motion, which the district court
indirectly grants by ordering a new trial on the back of an ineffective assistance
claim brought in a 2255 proceeding, under petitioners' position the
government would not be able to obtain review of the weight of the evidence
ruling. That state of affairs would not make any sense.
21
Second, the purpose and focus of the prejudice inquiry, which is the fairness
and reliability of the criminal proceeding, is not served by deciding the issue
without regard to what would have happened on appeal. An enlightening
decision on this point is Lockhart v. Fretwell, 506 U.S. 364, 113 S.Ct. 838, 122
L.Ed.2d 180 (1993), where the Supreme Court instructed us that "an analysis
focusing solely on mere outcome determination, without attention to whether
the result of the proceeding was fundamentally unfair or unreliable, is
defective." Id. at 369, 113 S.Ct. at 842.
22
The question the Supreme Court faced in Fretwell is analogous to the one
before us. A state court jury within the geographic boundaries of the Eighth
Circuit had sentenced the habeas petitioner, Fretwell, to death. The only
aggravating circumstance found by the jury was that the murder, which had
occurred during a robbery, was committed for pecuniary gain. Id. at 366, 113
S.Ct. at 841. At the time of sentencing Fretwell's counsel failed to object to the
use of that aggravating circumstance on the ground that it duplicated an element
of the capital offense. Id. at 367, 113 S.Ct. at 841. If he had, the objection
would have been valid under the law of the Eighth Circuit, as announced in
Collins v. Lockhart, 754 F.2d 258, 265 (8th Cir.1985), which was on the books
and still in effect at the time of the sentence hearing. See Fretwell, 506 U.S. at
367-68, 113 S.Ct. at 841-42.
23
After the state courts upheld his conviction, Fretwell convinced a federal
district court to grant him habeas relief on ineffective assistance grounds
because of his counsel's failure to object to the use of that aggravating
circumstance. Id. at 367, 113 S.Ct. at 841. In affirming the grant of relief, the
Eighth Circuit concluded that Fretwell had been prejudiced by his counsel's
failure to object. Id. at 368, 113 S.Ct. at 841-42 (citing Fretwell v. Lockhart,
946 F.2d 571 (8th Cir.1991)). It reached that conclusion even though the
Collins decision had been overruled after Fretwell was sentenced, a
development which meant that there would have been no merit to the objection
that counsel was faulted for not making. Id.2
24
It didn't matter that Collins had been subsequently overruled, the Eighth Circuit
reasoned, because the error in Collins had not been found out, and that decision
was still useable precedent (at least in that circuit) at the time of Fretwell's
sentencing. Fretwell, 506 U.S. at 368, 113 S.Ct. at 842. The Eighth Circuit
reasoned that because of its own interpretation of federal law in effect at the
time Fretwell was sentenced, the state trial court would have sustained a Collins
objection had Fretwell's attorney made one, as he should have, and that would
have wiped out the only aggravating circumstance the jury found. Id. With no
aggravating circumstance, Fretwell would have escaped a death sentence. Id.
25
The Supreme Court reversed. Id. at 373, 113 S.Ct. at 845. In explaining why,
the Court emphasized that the "touchstone of an ineffective assistance claim is
the fairness of the adversary proceeding." Id. at 370, 113 S.Ct. at 843. Put a
little differently, "`the right to the effective assistance of counsel is recognized
not for its own sake, but because of the effect it has on the ability of the
accused to receive a fair trial.'" Id. at 369, 113 S.Ct. at 842 (quoting United
States v. Cronic, 466 U.S. 648, 658, 104 S.Ct. 2039, 2046, 80 L.Ed.2d 657
(1984)). That is why Strickland said that in order to show prejudice, a petitioner
must show "`that counsel's errors were so serious as to deprive the defendant of
a fair trial, a trial whose result is reliable.'" Id. at 369, 113 S.Ct. at 842 (quoting
Strickland, 466 U.S. at 687, 104 S.Ct. at 2064). To focus on outcome alone, as
the Eighth Circuit did, without regard to whether counsel's error rendered the
result of the proceeding fundamentally unfair or unreliable, would grant the
petitioner "a windfall to which the law does not entitle him." Id. at 370, 113
S.Ct. at 843.
26
That last observation is entirely consistent with the Supreme Court's rejection
of a "sporting theory of justice" when it was formulating the prejudice
component of Brady claims. See Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83, 90, 83 S.Ct.
1194, 1198, 10 L.Ed.2d 215 (1963). We likewise reject the sporting theory of
justice reflected in the petitioners' freeze-frame approach to determining
prejudice. They are not entitled to a windfall, and we would not be faithful to
the teachings of the Supreme Court's Fretwell decision if we accepted their
focus on outcome to the exclusion of any consideration of fairness and
reliability. For better or worse, the federal criminal justice system has defined
into the concept of fairness and reliability, as it relates to new trial rulings, an
opportunity for the government to appeal. As a result, in deciding whether
petitioners were prejudiced by their counsels' failure to file timely motions for a
new trial, we must consider what would have happened in the government's
appeal if the motions had been timely and the district court had granted them.
So, the prejudice determination turns on whether it is reasonably probable that
we would have affirmed the grant of a new trial on grounds of the weight of the
evidence. We turn to that question now.
27
Deciding what we would have done had the district court granted a new trial is
made easier by that court's detailed explanation of why it would have done so
had petitioners' trial counsel given it the opportunity. In its order denying the
motions for new trial as untimely, the district court set out 19 pages of dicta
The petitioners ask that we conduct our review with a hand on their side of the
scale, asserting that we owe (or, rather, would have owed) deference to the
district court's decision to grant their motions for new trial. The petitioners
emphasize and attempt to enlarge the difference between the de novo standard
of review applicable to grants of judgments of acquittal and the abuse of
discretion review applicable to grants of new trial. The reason they do so is that
the law of the case from the first appeal, which involved the grant of a
judgment of acquittal, establishes that on de novo review the evidence was
sufficient to convict the petitioners. See Butcher, 273 F.3d at 1028-29, 1035
(appendix).
29
The difference between the two standards of review should not be overstated.
We do review the grant of a motion for judgment of acquittal de novo, viewing
the evidence in the light most favorable to the government in determining
whether a reasonable jury could have concluded beyond a reasonable doubt that
petitioners were guilty. United States v. Abbell, 271 F.3d 1286, 1299 (11th
Cir.2001). This evaluation is "comparable to the standard used in reviewing the
sufficiency of the evidence to sustain a conviction" when a defendant directly
appeals his conviction. United States v. Ellington, 348 F.3d 984, 989 (11th
Cir.2003).
30
As for orders granting a motion for new trial, we have said that we generally
review such orders for clear abuse of discretion. United States v. Pedrick, 181
F.3d 1264, 1266 (11th Cir.1999). Although we have said that, we have also
observed that we "accord less deference to a district court's grant of a new trial
than the `abuse of discretion' standard of review implies." United States v. Cox,
995 F.2d 1041, 1043 (11th Cir.1993).3 To be honest about it, at least insofar as
weight of the evidence is concerned:
31
the label "abuse of discretion" belies the standard of review that we actually
apply to grants of motions for a new trial. We may conclude that the district
court overreached its authority by granting a new trial if our review of the
record reveals that the evidence did not preponderate heavily against the jury's
verdict.
32
Id. at 1044. The grant of a motion for new trial generally is more closely
scrutinized than a denial, and the grant of new trial based on the weight of the
evidence is more closely scrutinized than the grant of new trial on other
grounds. United States v. Martinez, 763 F.2d 1297, 1312-13 (11th Cir.1985).
33
When reviewing the grant of a motion for new trial, we keep in mind that a
district court may weigh the evidence and consider the credibility of the
witnesses. Id. at 1312. However, we also keep in mind that the court "may not
reweigh the evidence and set aside the verdict simply because it feels some
other result would be more reasonable. The evidence must preponderate heavily
against the verdict, such that it would be a miscarriage of justice to let the
verdict stand." Id. at 1312-13 (internal quotations omitted). We limit in this
manner the district court's ability to reweigh the evidence, "because when the
jury verdict is set aside usual deference to the trial judge conflicts with
deference to the jury on questions of fact" thereby undermining trial by jury.
Cox, 995 F.2d at 1044. 4 For these and other reasons, while we do not conduct
pure de novo review in these circumstances, the review that we do conduct is
not much different because we want "to assure that the judge does not simply
substitute his judgment for that of the jury." Conway v. Chem. Leaman Tank
Lines, Inc., 610 F.2d 360, 363 (5th Cir.1980). 5
34
35
will be more useful to illustrate some of the ways in which the district court's
reasoning and findings conflict with the law of the case established by our own
prior reasoning and findings.
36
For example, the district court's order states that "[n]o evidence established that
the defendants actively misled anyone concerning Dr. Renick's exclusion."
Compare that finding to the following statement from our first opinion: "At
trial, the government established that the defendants mislead [sic] their
supervisors about the extent, duration and significance of Renick's exclusion."
Butcher, 273 F.3d at 1032 (appendix).
37
As one example of evidence supporting that conclusion, our prior opinion cites
to the trial testimony of Dr. Herring concerning a meeting he had with the
petitioners. Id. (citing to R8-140-43, which contains Dr. Herring's testimony).
The purpose of that meeting was to obtain Dr. Herring's endorsement of
Butcher's recommendation that Renick be hired as medical director. Dr.
Herring testified that Renick mentioned his prior legal problems at the meeting
but said they were the result of "billing errors," and that "the sum total" of his
penalty was that he had to "serve community volunteer time."
38
The district court found Dr. Herring's testimony that he had not been informed
of Renick's prior conviction unbelievable in light of the fact that he later
testified that he had been so informed. However, there was no inconsistency in
his testimony. Dr. Herring's actual testimony was that he had not been informed
that Renick was "a convicted felon." That testimony is not inconsistent with his
later testimony that Renick had told him that because of "some billing errors," a
judge had ordered him to "serve community volunteer time."
39
Another example of the district court's findings conflicting with the law of the
case is its continued reliance upon the fact that "Renick's name and
Medicare/CHAMPUS identification number were placed on certain bills that
were sent to Medicare and CHAMPUS ... as evidence of candor on the parts of
the both defendants." Butcher, 273 F.3d at 1032-33 (appendix). In our first
opinion, we considered but rejected that very finding. We explained that: the
evidence produced at trial shows that all billing relevant to the case at bar was
submitted using the hospital's, not the individual provider's, provider number.
The government adequately established that when, as here, Medicare and
CHAMPUS are billed under the hospital's provider number, neither agency has
cause to even review the name or number associated with the treating
physician. Moreover, the government also established at trial that the
"identification" number that appeared on a few of the bills submitted to
Medicare and CHAMPUS was Renick's state license number and not his
Id. at 1033. In that manner we rejected any notion that the petitioners' use of
Renick's state license number was evidence of their candor, or of a lack of
intent to defraud. Id. In spite of that conclusion, the district court found exactly
the opposite to be true. It did so without even mentioning this Court's first
opinion, or our findings and conclusion on this point.
41
Yet another example involves the 1994 submission by the Rivendell hospital in
Panama City, upon Butcher's sworn signature, of certain cost reports to
Medicare that included requests for reimbursements for Renick's services. The
cost reports categorized Renick's services as 100 percent "administrative," even
though he was primarily treating patients. Butcher signed the cost reports in her
capacity as CEO and administrator. By signing the cost reports, Butcher
certified that she had examined them, that to the best of her knowledge and
belief they were true, correct, and complete, that she was familiar with the
applicable laws, and that the cost reports complied with those laws. Butcher,
273 F.3d at 1033-34 (appendix).
42
In support of the motions for judgment of acquittal, Butcher asserted that she
had signed those reports without reviewing them after they had already been
electronically filed. The district court believed her, and for that reason when
granting her a judgment of acquittal it discounted her sworn signature as
evidence of her knowledge as well as of her intent to improperly bill Medicare
for Renick's services. Id. at 1034 (appendix). In reversing that judgment of
acquittal, we held the district court had erred in accepting Butcher's argument
and making the finding it did about the cost reports. Id.
43
We expressly held that there was ample evidence to show Butcher knew that
Renick was excluded from billing Medicare, that his services could not be
reimbursed, and that Renick did not spend all of his time in administrative tasks.
Id. We found that the sworn certification Butcher signed was "clear and
unambiguous" proof of those facts. Id. We held that the true facts, taken
together with Butcher's certification of the accuracy of the cost reports charging
Medicare for 100 percent of Renick's time as an administrative cost, amply
supported the finding implicit in the jury's verdicts of Butcher's knowledge and
intent to improperly bill Medicare for Renick's services. Id.
44
In explaining why it felt that the petitioners were entitled to the grant of their
44
In explaining why it felt that the petitioners were entitled to the grant of their
motions for new trial, the district court once again found that "[t]here was no
evidence that either Dr. Renick or Butcher had any knowledge" of how
Renick's services were allocated in the cost reports. That finding necessarily
included a subsidiary one that Butcher's sworn signature on the certification did
not evidence that she was aware of the contents of the report a finding that
could not have more clearly conflicted with the law of the case as established
by our first opinion. If the district court had followed the law of the case in this
and other respects, it would not have concluded that the petitioners were
entitled to a new trial on grounds of the weight of the evidence.
IV.
45
For these reasons, we conclude that there is no reasonable probability that if the
new trial motions had been filed on time, allowing the district court to grant
them on weight of the evidence grounds, we would have affirmed. Our
confidence in the outcome of the petitioners' trial and post-verdict proceedings
are not undermined. The petitioners have failed to demonstrate the requisite
prejudice from their counsels' failure to file their motions for a new trial in a
timely fashion. Ineffective assistance of counsel has not been shown, and the
district court should not have granted the petitioners' 2255 motions. When our
mandate issues in this appeal, it will be time for the petitioners to begin serving
their sentences.
46
The district court's judgment granting petitioners' 2255 motions and setting
aside their convictions and sentences is REVERSED.
Notes:
*
Honorable Adalberto Jordan, United States District Judge for the Southern
District of Florida, sitting by designation
denial of a 2255 motion"); United States v. Phillips, 225 F.3d 1198, 1200
(11th Cir.2000) (observing that Fed.R.App.P. 4(a)(1)(B) would apply to allow
the government 60 days to appeal from the grant of a 2255 motion) (dicta);
see also United States v. Dunham Concrete Prods., Inc., 501 F.2d 80, 81 (5th
Cir.1974) ("This Circuit has long taken the view that 2255 proceedings are,
like habeas matters, civil actions mainly standing on their own bottoms...."). We
have jurisdiction because the notice of appeal was timely filed, although just
barely.
2
Cox is a civil case, but we review the grant of a new trial under the same
standard in civil and criminal cases. Cox, 995 F.2d at 1043.
We do not mean to suggest that a district court may never grant a motion for
new trial based on the weight of the evidence where the evidence is sufficient
for conviction. The Rule 29 and Rule 33 standards are not identical. In a proper
case a case in which the evidence of guilt although legally sufficient is thin
and marked by "uncertainties and discrepancies,"Martinez, 763 F.2d at 1313
there is room between the two standards for a district court to reweigh the
evidence and re-evaluate the credibility of witnesses. See id. at 1312-13; see
also Tibbs v. Florida, 457 U.S. 31, 42-43, 102 S.Ct. 2211, 2218-19, 72 L.Ed.2d
652 (1982). However, such a case will be rare.
InBonner v. City of Prichard, 661 F.2d 1206, 1209 (11th Cir.1981) (en banc),
this Court adopted as binding precedent all decisions of the former Fifth Circuit
handed down prior to October 1, 1981.