NEWARK, NJ — A New Jersey man serving more than 26 years in federal prison for a string of armed bank robberies has been denied in his latest attempt to reduce his sentence, after a federal judge rejected his motion to undo a prior ruling based on claims of legal error and new evidence.
Joseph McAdams, who pleaded guilty in 2009 to ten counts of bank robbery and one count of brandishing a firearm, filed a motion under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 60(b)(4) and (d)(1) asking the court to vacate the judgment against him. U.S. District Judge Edward S. Kiel denied the motion on procedural and substantive grounds and declined to issue a certificate of appealability.
McAdams had argued that his classification as a “career offender” — which added significant time to his sentence — was based on improperly counted prior convictions, including one from 1979 that he claimed should have been excluded under federal sentencing guidelines. He was sentenced in 2010 to 235 months on the robbery charges and an additional mandatory 84 months on the gun charge, totaling 319 months (26 years and 7 months).
The court had previously examined McAdams’s arguments in multiple rounds of litigation. In 2013, he filed a motion under 28 U.S.C. § 2255 claiming ineffective counsel and an erroneous sentencing enhancement. An evidentiary hearing in 2014 revealed that two of McAdams’s older convictions from the 1980s were ineligible as predicate offenses — a partial win for him — but the court still found that a February 1979 armed robbery conviction could be counted, upholding the “career offender” designation.
McAdams later submitted parole records and a revised judgment from state court to show he had not been incarcerated within the required 15-year window before his federal offense. However, his motions were dismissed as second or successive § 2255 petitions, over which the court lacked jurisdiction without approval from the appellate court.
In his most recent motion, McAdams again attempted to argue that the court erred in its judgment, but Judge Kiel found that the claims had already been litigated and did not justify reopening the case under Rule 60. No response was filed by the U.S. government, and the court ruled on the written record.
Unless he secures further relief through higher courts, McAdams remains bound by the original sentence imposed more than 15 years ago.