Dominic Dean Adams v. United States

ORDER

Dominic Dean Adams is a federal prisoner who pleaded guilty to two counts of murder and to two counts of assaulting a federal detention officer. Adams was a minor when he committed these crimes. He was sentenced to consecutive prison terms of 396 months for the murder charges and 120 months for the assault charges — 43 years total.

In 2013, the district court denied Adams’s two substantially identical pro se motions under 28 U.S.C. § 2255 . Adams has now filed an application for leave to file a second or successive § 2255 motion to vacate, set aside, or correct his sentence. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 2255 (h).

We may grant authorization to file a second or successive § 2255 motion if the application makes a prima facie showing that the motion contains “a new rule of constitutional law, made retroactive to cases on collateral review by the Supreme Court, that was previously unavailable.” 28 U.S.C. § 2255 (h)(2); id. § 2244(b)(3)(C). A prima facie showing means “a sufficient showing of possible merit to warrant a fuller exploration by the district court.” Woratzeck v. Stewart, 118 F.3d 648, 650 (9th Cir.1997) (per curiam) (quoting Bennett v. United States, 119…