Defendant May Get Career Criminal Sentence Bump After Law Change

Prosecutors didn’t waive the argument that a defendant previously convicted for making terrorist threats was eligible for a sentence enhancement as a career criminal because the law changed 10 days after the sentencing, the Eleventh Circuit said Tuesday.

On the day Ortaz Sharp was sentenced for being a felon in possession of a firearm, circuit precedent held that his conviction under Georgia law for making terrorist threats wasn’t a predicate act that made him eligible for a mandatory 15-year sentence under the Armed Career Criminal Act.

But 10 days later, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit held ...