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Assessing Divisibility In The Armed Career Criminal Act, Ted Koehler
Assessing Divisibility In The Armed Career Criminal Act, Ted Koehler
Michigan Law Review
When courts analyze whether a defendant's prior conviction qualifies as a "violent felony" under the Armed Career Criminal Act's "residual clause," they use a "categorical approach," looking only to the statutory language of the prior offense, rather than the facts disclosed by the record of conviction. But when a defendant is convicted under a "divisible" statute, which encompasses a broader range of conduct, only some of which would qualify as a predicate offense, courts may employ the "modified categorical approach." This approach allows courts to view additional documents to determine whether the jury convicted the defendant of the Armed Career …
Resolving The Post-Begay Maelstrom Statutory Rape As A Violent Felony Under The Armed Career Criminal Act, Sarena M. Holder
Resolving The Post-Begay Maelstrom Statutory Rape As A Violent Felony Under The Armed Career Criminal Act, Sarena M. Holder
Cleveland State Law Review
The Armed Career Criminal Act ("ACCA"), enacted in 1984, mandates a minimum fifteen-year sentence for defendants who unlawfully possess a firearm and who also have three prior convictions for violent felonies and/or serious drug offenses. Since its inception, the ACCA has presented a weighty problem: what constitutes a "violent" felony? The United States Supreme Court has made an effort to allay the confusion, most recently in its decision in Begay v. United States, requiring that violent felonies be purposefully violent or aggressive. This Note questions the reasoning of circuit courts that have disallowed statutory rape as a violent felony post-Begay, …