By: WISCONSIN LAW JOURNAL STAFF//April 12, 2012//
By: WISCONSIN LAW JOURNAL STAFF//April 12, 2012//
Sentencing
FIPOF; prior convictions; crimes of violence
Conspiracy to commit robbery is a crime of violence under U.S.S.G. 2K2.1(a)(2).
“James puts to rest any doubt about whether answering the question ‘are inchoate offenses included?’ conflicts with the text. The Supreme Court held in James that attempted burglary (an inchoate offense) is a ‘violent felony’ for the purpose of §924(e)(2)(B)(ii). As we related above, James does not tell us whether conspiracy to commit a violent felony is treated as a violent felony. But James does show that there is no conflict between the text of §924(e)(2)(B)(ii), or §4B1.2(a), and a rule treating an inchoate offense the same as the substantive offense. If treating substantive and inchoate offenses alike created a conflict, then James would have come out the other way. Instead it grouped attempt with the substantive crime—and it found support in the Sentencing Commission’s note to §4B1.2, quoting with approval, 550 U.S. at 206, the very language equating attempts and conspiracies that Raupp wants us to ignore.
See also Kawashima v. Holder, 132 S. Ct. 1166, 1172–73 (2012) (treating the offense of aiding and abetting a violation of tax laws as having the same attributes as the underlying substantive offense).”
Affirmed.
11-2215 U.S. v. Raupp
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Indiana, Pratt, J., Easterbrook, J.