Criminal History Stymied Defendant’s Chance for Shorter Sentence

The hope a defendant had for a reduced sentence evaporated Wednesday when the Third Circuit said that crimes from his rap sheet could take the place of a voided predicate crime originally used to enhance his sentence under the Armed Career Criminal Act.

The case put the court squarely in the middle of a circuit split over the best way to evaluate prior crimes on collateral review for purposes of the ACCA enhancement. The Fourth Circuit considers only crimes that were specifically designated by the US as ACCA predicates during sentencing. The Eleventh Circuit allows the US two swap in ...