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What Wisconsin Writes is Not What the Feds Read: Guns and Civil Rights

By Melody Evans and Kirk Redmond

Resolving a circuit split, Justice Ginsburg wrote the unanimous decision in Logan v. US, which addresses a statutory exception to the felon-in-possession prohibition. Here is the summed-up defense loss:Does the ?civil rights restored? exemption contained in §921(a)(20) encompass, and therefore remove from ACCA?s reach, state-court convictions that at no time deprived the offender of civil rights? We hold that the §921(a)(20) exemption provision does not cover the case of an offender who retained civil rights at all times, and whose legal status, postconviction, remained in all respects unaltered by any state dispensation.Here's the §921(a)(20) exception:Any conviction which has been expunged, or set aside or for which a person has been pardoned or has had civil rights restored ...continue to full post

Full post as published by Kansas Federal Defender on December 04, 2007 (boomark / email).