Collateral Attack – Sentencing

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7^th Circuit Court of Appeals

Case Name: Jakeffe Holt v. United States of America

Case No.: 16-1793

Officials: EASTERBROOK, KANNE, and HAMILTON, Circuit Judges.

Focus: Collateral Attack – Sentencing

About a decade ago, Jakeffe Holt was convicted of possessing a firearm despite prior convictions that barred gun ownership. 18 U.S.C. §922(g)(1). Several of those convictions led the district court to deem him an armed career criminal, 18 U.S.C. §924(e), and impose a 200-month sentence. Johnson v. United States, 135 S. Ct. 2551 (2015), holds that the residual clause in §924(e)(2)(B)(ii) is unconstitutionally vague. Holt then launched a collateral attack on his sentence under 28 U.S.C. §2255. Section 924(e) applies to persons with three prior violent felonies or serious drug offenses. The district court had counted a burglary conviction toward this number. Holt argued that this was a mistake. The district court rejected this argument and denied Holt’s petition. 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 48063 (N.D. Ill. Apr. 11, 2016). While Holt’s appeal was pending we held that the version of the Illinois burglary statute under which he had been convicted is indeed not a “violent felony” because it does not satisfy the definition of “burglary” used in Mathis v. United States, 136 S. Ct. 2243 (2016), for indivisible statutes. See United States v. Haney, 840 F.3d 472 (7th Cir. 2016).

Affirmed

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Attorney Derek A. Hawkins is the managing partner at Hawkins Law Offices LLC, where he heads up the firm’s startup law practice. He specializes in business formation, corporate governance, intellectual property protection, private equity and venture capital funding and mergers & acquisitions. Check out the website at www.hawkins-lawoffices.com or contact them at 262-737-8825.