United States v. David Roy Carter, 691 F. App'x 109

Defendant David Roy Carter pleaded guilty (no plea agreement) to being a felon in possession of a firearm under 18 U.S.C. §§ 922(g)(1), 924.
The district court calculated an advisory Sentencing Guidelines range of 46–57 months and sentenced Carter to 48 months’ imprisonment.
The Guidelines calculation relied on finding that Carter’s prior North Carolina convictions for attempted second-degree kidnapping qualified as a "crime of violence" under U.S.S.G. § 4B1.2(a), affecting his offense level and criminal history category.
Carter appealed, arguing the § 4B1.2(a) residual clause is void for vagueness under Johnson v. United States and that an "attempt" conviction cannot qualify as a crime of violence.
The Fourth Circuit reviewed the sentence for procedural and substantive reasonableness under Gall v. United States and affirmed.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Whether the district court miscalculated the Guidelines range by treating prior attempted kidnapping as a crime of violence under U.S.S.G. § 4B1.2(a)	Carter: § 4B1.2(a)’s residual clause is void for vagueness under Johnson, so his prior convictions cannot be counted	Government: § 4B1.2(a) is not void for vagueness; the prior convictions qualify as crimes of violence	Court: Rejected Carter’s challenge; Beckles controls — § 4B1.2(a) is not subject to vagueness attack and his attempted offenses can qualify

Gall v. United States, 552 U.S. 38 (2007) (standard for reviewing federal sentencing for procedural and substantive reasonableness)
Johnson v. United States, 135 S. Ct. 2551 (2015) (held ACCA residual clause void for vagueness)
Beckles v. United States, 137 S. Ct. 886 (2017) (held Sentencing Guidelines are not subject to a vagueness challenge under the Due Process Clause)
United States v. Louthian, 756 F.3d 295 (4th Cir. 2014) (within‑Guidelines sentences are presumptively reasonable)