Sentencing: Grouping Counts

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7^th Circuit Court of Appeals

Case Name: United States of America v. Charles States

Case No.: 22-1477

Officials: Flaum, St. Eve, and Pryor, Circuit Judges.

Focus: Sentencing: Grouping Counts

States, a member of a Chicago gang, was involved in drug trafficking and kidnappings. Law enforcement officers went to his apartment to apprehend him, resulting in States firing five shots through the door, injuring an officer’s finger. He was subsequently convicted on 12 counts and received a sentence of life imprisonment, along with 57 years in consecutive sentences under 18 U.S.C. 924(c). This included two counts for carrying a firearm during a crime of violence and one count for carrying a firearm during a drug trafficking offense. States later sought to have his sentence vacated under 28 U.S.C. 2255, but the Seventh Circuit upheld the reinstatement of his sentence.

Subsequently, the Supreme Court declared (in Johnson) that the residual clause in the Armed Career Criminal Act (ACCA) (18 U.S.C. 924(e)(2)(B)) was unconstitutionally vague. Notably, Section 924(c) contained a similar residual clause, which was later invalidated. States then filed a successive 2255 motion to vacate his 924(c) convictions. His predicate crimes were Hobbs Act extortion and attempted murder of a federal officer under 18 U.S.C. 1113-1114. The court vacated the conviction based on extortion but denied the motion regarding the conviction for attempted murder. This decision was based on the controlling circuit precedent, which established that an attempt to commit a crime of violence falls under the elements clause of 924(c). The Seventh Circuit affirmed his sentence, which consisted of concurrent 20-year terms and two consecutive five-year sentences for the 924(c) convictions. The district court correctly determined that attempted murder of a federal officer is considered a crime of violence, while drug trafficking and kidnapping offenses could not be grouped together.

Affirmed.

Decided 07/05/23

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