Sentencing Guidelines – Plain Error

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7^th Circuit Court of Appeals

Case Name: United States of America v. Alfred E. Jerry

Case No.: 20-1298

Officials: SYKES, Chief Judge, and HAMILTON and BRENNAN, Circuit Judges.

Focus: Sentencing Guidelines – Plain Error

Alfred Jerry robbed a cellphone store at gunpoint and then pleaded guilty to Hobbs Act robbery in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1951. When he committed this crime, Jerry had previous state convictions for robbery and attempted murder. At sentencing in this case, the district court determined that those state convictions, in addition to his Hobbs Act robbery conviction, meant that Jerry qualified as a “career offender” under the Sentencing Guidelines. That designation requires that a defendant have committed at least three “crimes of violence” as defined by U.S.S.G. § 4B1.1 & 1.2. While this case was on appeal, this court held in Bridges v. United States that Hobbs Act robbery does not qualify as a “crime of violence” under the Guidelines. 991 F.3d 793, 797 (7th Cir. 2021). Because the plain error standard requires courts to look to the law at the time of appeal when deciding if an error is “clear and obvious,” Henderson v. United States, 568 U.S. 266, 269 (2013), we conclude that it was plain error to sentence Jerry as a career offender, and we remand for resentencing.

Reversed and remanded

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Derek A Hawkins is Associate Corporate Counsel, IP at Amazon.