Summary
The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri denied Ryan John Unger’s motion for equitable tolling and dismissed his 28 U.S.C. § 2255 motion as untimely. The court held that Unger’s asserted novel legal theories did not constitute an extraordinary circumstance warranting equitable tolling and denied his motion to appoint counsel as moot. The court dismissed the action with prejudice and declined to issue a certificate of appealability.
Topics
Practice areas
Questions Presented
- Whether Unger was entitled to equitable tolling of the one-year limitations period for his § 2255 motion.
- Whether Unger's § 2255 motion was time-barred under 28 U.S.C. § 2255(f).
- Whether the court should issue a certificate of appealability.
- Whether appointment of counsel was warranted.
Holdings
- Equitable tolling was unwarranted because Unger did not show that he had pursued his rights diligently or that an extraordinary circumstance prevented timely filing; his asserted novel legal theories did not qualify as an extraordinary circumstance.
- The § 2255 motion was barred by the one-year limitations period in 28 U.S.C. § 2255(f), which expired in August 2013.
- No certificate of appealability should issue because reasonable jurists could not debate the motion's untimeliness or the correctness of the procedural ruling.
- The motion to appoint counsel was denied as moot after the action was dismissed.
Key quotations
“equitable tolling is appropriate where a petitioner has been pursuing his rights diligently, and that some extraordinary circumstance stood in his way of filing timely.”
“These are not novel legal theories, but rather baseless attempts to attack his criminal conviction and sentence well beyond the period of limitation.”
Factual background
Unger pleaded guilty on September 19, 2011, to production of child pornography. On December 19, 2011, the district court sentenced him to 292 months of imprisonment and life supervised release, and the Eighth Circuit affirmed his sentence on August 8, 2012. His one-year period to file a § 2255 motion expired in August 2013, but he filed the present motion more than twelve years later. He argued that novel constitutional theories concerning the continued existence of child pornography and the lack of general deterrence justified equitable tolling.
Procedural history
Unger pleaded guilty in 2011 to production of child pornography and received a 292-month prison sentence and life supervised release. The Eighth Circuit affirmed his sentence on August 8, 2012. He filed the present § 2255 motion more than twelve years after the August 2013 limitations deadline and sought equitable tolling based on novel legal theories.