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Congress passed the Armed Career Criminal Act (ACCA) in 1984, aiming to bring longer sentences to violent career criminals. Under ACCA, federal defendants facing firearms possession charges can get much longer sentences if they have previously been convicted of three or more violent felonies or serious drug crimes. The 10-year maximum sentence for being a felon in possession of a firearm rises to a 15-year minimum and lifetime maximum.
On October 9, the Supreme Court heard arguments in three cases raising issues about what exactly is or isn’t included within the definition of a violent felony. Variations in state criminal laws often make it necessary for courts to determine whether violating a particular law amounts to committing a violent felony.
In Stokeling v. United States, a Florida man argued that a prior conviction for suddenly snatching a necklace off a woman’s neck should not count as a violent felony. In that case, the defendant with two previous robbery convictions pleaded guilty in 2016 to a charge of being a felon in possession of a firearm. Prosecutors sought to invoke the ACCA to increase his sentence for the firearms charge. Defendant Stokeling argued his prior conviction didn’t qualify as a violent felony under the ACCA.
The ACCA’s definition of a violent felony includes a crime that has as an element “the use, attempted use, or threatened use of physical force” against another person. The federal trial court agreed with Stokeling that ACCA’s definition of a violent felony shouldn’t include an offense that a state appellate court had defined as requiring only slight force to overcome any victim resistance, but the 11th Circuit reversed. The U.S. Department of Justice argued against a Supreme Court review.
Two other combined cases – United States v. Stitt and United States v. Sims – raise the question of what types of burglary qualify for ACCA enhancement. Burglary is one of a limited number of offenses that ACCA explicitly includes in its definition of a violent felony. Still, the defendants’ convictions in these cases came under Arkansas and Tennessee burglary laws, which lower courts saw as significantly broader than how Supreme Court precedent defines that term and, thus, not capable of serving as violent felonies for ACCA purposes.
Though the state laws differ in various ways, both authorize burglary prosecutions for breaking into residential structures and mobile homes, trailers, and other non-permanent or moveable structures where people might sleep. Supreme Court precedent (in its 1990 Taylor decision) excluded vehicles from areas subject to burglary. The Justice Department asked the Supreme Court to review the lower court decisions, which it claimed were wrongly decided.
Perhaps because the arguments came at the start of the second week of the Supreme Court’s new term or because it was the first argument attended by newly installed Justice Brett Kavanaugh, the high court’s oral argument seemed more light-hearted than is usually the case.
At one point, when hearing the Stokeling argument and discussing how much violence would have to accompany a crime to establish it as violent, Justice Sotomayor asked if it would be enough that she pinched the victim and mimed pinching Justice Gorsuch, who acted horrified by the suggestion.
Published Oct 18, 2018 by Christopher Zoukis, JD, MBA | Last Updated by Christopher Zoukis, JD, MBA on Feb 16, 2024 at 2:09 pm
