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Restoration Drama

span style="font-family: verdana;"span style="color: rgb(0, 204, 204);"United States v. Bullock/span, No. 07-3059-cr (2d Cir. December 17, 2008) (span style="font-weight: bold;"Jacobs/span, Minor, Sotomayor, CJJ)br /br /Bullock, a previously convicted felon, was convicted, after a jury trial, of possessing ammunition. He was subject to a fifteen-year mandatory minimum under the Armed Career Criminal Act (?ACCA?), and actually received a sentence of 188 months. On appeal, he argued principally that his prior convictions - three robberies - were not ACCA predicates because his civil rights had been restored. span style="font-style: italic;"See/span 18 U.S.C. § 921(a)(20). Specifically, he noted that he had ?been off parole for 11 years,? was ?entitled to vote,? and that New York law did not restrict his right to possess ammunition.br /br /The circuit disagreed. Restoration of civil rights has three components - the right to vote, the right to serve on a jury, and the right to hold elective office. The court agreed that Bullock?s rights to vote and hold office were ?arguably? restored by operation of law under N.Y. Elect. Law § 5-106 and N.Y. Civ. Rights Law § 79. But, since Bullock was not pardoned and his prior convictions had not been ?expunged,? he still did not have the right to serve on a jury in New York. Accordingly, the district court properly counted Bullock?s as ACCA predicates.br /br //span

Full post as published by Second Circuit Blog on December 17, 2008 (boomark / email).