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10-5258 McNeill v. U.S.

By: WISCONSIN LAW JOURNAL STAFF//June 7, 2011//

10-5258 McNeill v. U.S.

By: WISCONSIN LAW JOURNAL STAFF//June 7, 2011//

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Sentencing
ACCA

A federal sentencing court must determine whether “an offense under State law” is a “serious drug offense” by consulting the “maximum term of imprisonment” applicable to a defendant’s prior state drug offense at the time of the defendant’s conviction for that offense.

ACCA’s plain text requires this result by mandating that the court  determine whether a “previous conviction” was for a serious drug offense. The  only way to answer this backward-looking question is to consult the law that  applied at the time of that conviction. ACCA’s use of the present tense in  defining a “serious drug offense” as, inter alia, “an offense … for which a  maximum [10-year] term … is prescribed by law” does not suggest otherwise.  McNeill’s argument that this language looks to the state law in effect at the  time of the federal sentencing ignores ACCA’s focus on convictions that have  already occurred.

598 F. 3d 161, affirmed.

10-5258 McNeill v. U.S.

Thomas, J.

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