Sims v. United States

Summary

The United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama denied Dermetris Sims’s motion to vacate, set aside, or correct his sentence under 28 U.S.C. § 2255. The court rejected Sims’s ineffective-assistance claims concerning drug-quantity attribution, a leader/organizer enhancement, and criminal-history points, finding that counsel had raised the relevant objections and that Sims could not establish prejudice. The court also treated his breach-of-plea-agreement claim as waived and not independently cognizable under § 2255.

Holdings

1. A standalone breach-of-plea-agreement claim did not fall within the defined grounds for relief under § 2255 and was waived by Sims's plea agreement. The court nevertheless considered the related factual allegations as part of the ineffective-assistance claim.
2. Sims failed to establish deficient performance because the record showed that counsel did object to the drug quantity, leader-or-organizer enhancement, and criminal-history calculations in the sentencing memorandum.
3. Sims failed to show prejudice because he could not establish a reasonable probability of a different sentence even if counsel had failed to make the objections.

Questions Presented

1. Whether Sims's breach-of-plea-agreement claim was cognizable under 28 U.S.C. § 2255 and survived his plea-agreement waiver.
2. Whether counsel rendered ineffective assistance by allegedly failing to object to the drug quantity attributed to Sims.
3. Whether counsel rendered ineffective assistance by allegedly failing to object to Sims's leader-or-organizer classification.
4. Whether counsel rendered ineffective assistance by allegedly failing to object to the criminal-history points assigned to Sims.
5. Whether Sims demonstrated prejudice warranting vacatur, correction, or resentencing.

Disposition

denied