US Supreme Court to decide if non-generic crimes trigger Armed Career Criminal Act

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The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to decide whether courts may take a modified categorical approach to determining whether a conviction for burglary, which requires fewer elements than generic burglary, qualifies as a violent felony under the Armed Career Criminal Act.

The defendant in this case was convicted of a federal firearms offense. At the time, he had five prior felony convictions, triggering an automatic 15-year sentencing enhancement under the Act.

But the defendant argued that his prior convictions for burglary did not qualify as violent felonies because they lack requisite elements. Specifically, the California burglary charge to which he pled guilty did not include the element of “entering or remaining unlawfully in a building,” as the generic definition does.

Applying what it called a “modified categorical approach” which considered the charging document, plea agreement and factual finding s in the state law case, the 9th Circuit rejected the defendant’s claim.

“We hold that the guilty plea and conviction necessarily rested on facts that satisfy the elements of the generic definition of burglary,” the court ruled. “The charging document shows that [the defendant] pled guilty to entering a building, and the plea colloquy establishes that he did so in an unlawful way (by ‘breaking and entering’) in the generic sense. We reject as fanciful [his] argument that ‘building’ could have meant a tent. The combination of facts stated in the information and plea colloquy show that [the defendant’s] conviction necessarily rested on facts identifying the burglary as generic.”

The ruling created a split in the circuits. The Supreme Court will decide the issue during the term that begins October 2012.

Descamps v. U.S., No. 11-9540. Certiorari granted: Aug. 31, 2012. Ruling below: 466 Fed.Appx. 563, (9th Cir. 2012).