What happened

Justice Sonia Sotomayor said lower courts should take a harder look at whether plea-agreement waivers can block defendants from challenging convictions later called unconstitutional, even as the U.S. Supreme Court denied certiorari in Cedric Ray Jones' case.

The justice wrote separately from the denial, saying Hunter v. United States addressed appeal waivers in the sentencing context, while Jones' petition raised a related but distinct question: when a collateral-review waiver may be enforced against a challenge to the validity of a conviction itself. She said Hunter recognized that courts play a "special, and indeed pivotal" role in approving and enforcing waivers, and that enforcement may be improper when it would cause a "miscarriage of justice."

Jones was charged in 2015 with, among other offenses, brandishing a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence under 18 U.S.C. ยง 924(c)(1)(A)(ii). He pleaded guilty to the Section 924(c) count under an agreement that waived his rights to appeal and to contest his convictions and sentences in collateral proceedings, including under Sections 2241 and 2255.

In 2018, Jones moved under Section 2255 to vacate his conviction, arguing that the residual clause supporting his Section 924(c) conviction was unconstitutionally vague. While that motion was pending, the Supreme Court decided United States v. Davis, which held Section 924(c)'s residual clause unconstitutionally vague and agreed with Jones on that issue.

The government still opposed relief, arguing that Jones' collateral-review waiver barred his challenge. The district court enforced the waiver and denied the motion, and the Fifth Circuit affirmed, explaining that its precedent recognized only ineffective assistance of counsel and sentences exceeding the statutory maximum as exceptions to enforcing appeal or collateral-review waivers.

Sotomayor said the result may leave Jones serving a sentence for a crime that, according to the Fifth Circuit dissent she cited, all agreed had been held unconstitutional under Supreme Court precedent. She encouraged the Fifth Circuit and other courts, in future conviction challenges, to consider whether enforcing appeal or collateral-review waivers fits with Hunter's miscarriage-of-justice principles.