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Cert Grants on ACCA Cases

By Melody Evans and Kirk Redmond

Today the Supreme Court granted cert in two ACCA cases. The first, United States v. Begay, comes from the Tenth Circuit and concerns whether driving under the influence is a violent felony. The second, United States v. Rodriquez, concerns a Ninth Circuit ruling that the defendant?s prior drug convictions from Washington did not constitute ?serious drug felonies? because in each, the defendant was subject to a statutory maximum of five years, and the ACCA requires that the conviction subject the defendant to a term of ten years or more. The Washington statutes under which Mr. Rodriquez was convicted permitted the Court to double the statutory maximum (to ten years) if the defendant was a recidivist drug offender (which Mr. Rodriquez was). This enhancement was not applied, but the Government argued that it could have been...continue to full post

Full post as published by Kansas Federal Defender on September 25, 2007 (boomark / email).