Brandon Michael Crawford v. EDDIE L. PEARSON, Warden, Greensville Correctional Center

UNPUBLISHED
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT
No. 15-6498
BRANDON MICHAEL CRAWFORD,
Petitioner - Appellant,
v.
EDDIE L. PEARSON, Warden, Greensville Correctional Center,
Respondent - Appellee.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern
District of Virginia, at Alexandria. T. S. Ellis, III, Senior
District Judge. (1:13-cv-00773-TSE-JFA)
Submitted: June 6, 2016 Decided: June 16, 2016
Before SHEDD, WYNN, and HARRIS, Circuit Judges.
Vacated and remanded by unpublished per curiam opinion.
Michael Anthony Petrino, KIRKLAND & ELLIS, LLP, Washington,
D.C., for Appellant. Craig Stallard, Assistant Attorney
General, Richmond, Virginia, for Appellee.
Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit.

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PER CURIAM:
Brandon Michael Crawford seeks to appeal the district
court’s order denying relief on his 28 U.S.C. § 2254 (2012)
petition seeking to challenge his Virginia sentence of mandatory
life without parole under Miller v. Alabama, 132 S. Ct. 2455
(2012).* The district court concluded that Miller was not
retroactively applicable to cases on collateral review for
purposes of 28 U.S.C. § 2244(d)(1)(C) (2012). Subsequent to the
district court’s decision, the Supreme Court held in Montgomery
v. Louisiana, 136 S. Ct. 718, 732 (2016), that “Miller announced
a new substantive rule that is retroactive in cases on
collateral review.” Because the district court did not have the
benefit of this decision, we grant a certificate of
appealability, vacate the judgment, and remand for further
proceedings in light of Montgomery. We express no opinion as to
the merits of Crawford’s petition. We dispense with oral
argument because the facts and legal contentions are adequately
presented in the materials before this court and argument would
not aid the decisional process.
VACATED AND REMANDED
* Crawford received this mandatory life sentence for two
counts of capital murder; he was 17 at the time he committed the
offenses.

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