Lead Opinion
Affirmed by published opinion. Judge DIAZ wrote the majority opinion, in which Judge AGEE joined. Judge DAVIS wrote a dissenting opinion.
A jury convicted Norman Alan Kerr of possession of a firearm after being previously convicted of a crime punishable by imprisonment for a term exceeding one year, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1). The district court determined that Kerr qualified as an armed career criminal under the Armed Career Criminal Act (“ACCA”), 18 U.S.C. § 924(e), and sentenced him to 268 months’ imprisonment.
Kerr raises three issues in this appeal. First, he contends that his prior North Carolina state convictions do not qualify as predicate felonies for sentencing under the ACCA because he was sentenced in the mitigated range — as opposed to the presumptive range — of punishment under North Carolina’s Structured Sentencing Act. Second, he argues that the same reasoning precludes his § 922(g)(1) conviction, which similarly requires a predicate felony offense. Finally, Kerr asserts that his counsel in his initial appeal rendered ineffective assistance by failing to challenge his conviction on the basis that he lacked a predicate felony. We disagree with Kerr’s first two arguments and find that the third one is moot. We therefore affirm the district court’s judgment.
I.
Kerr was charged with one count of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 922(g)(1), 924(e). The indictment alleged that, for the purposes of the ACCA, Kerr had previously been convicted of three violent felonies or serious drug offenses punishable by imprisonment for a term greater than one year. The record establishes that Kerr had three 2008 North Carolina state convictions for felony breaking and entering.
Following a jury trial, Kerr was convicted of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. At his sentencing hearing, Kerr objected to his designation as an armed career criminal under § 924(e), which required that Kerr have a combination of three convictions for violent felonies or serious drug offenses. The district court overruled the objection, relying on then-binding precedent that a North Carolina state conviction constitutes a crime punishable by a term of imprisonment exceeding one year “if any defendant charged with that crime could receive a sentence of more than one year,” United States v. Harp,
Kerr appealed, arguing that the district court erred in denying his motion to substitute counsel and in sentencing him under the ACCA. We placed the appeal in
We subsequently affirmed the district court’s denial of Kerr’s motion to substitute counsel and vacated Kerr’s sentence because Harp was no longer good law. With respect to sentencing, we expressed no opinion regarding whether Kerr’s prior state convictions qualified as predicate felonies.
On remand, Kerr’s counsel filed a motion asking the court to vacate Kerr’s conviction and dismiss the indictment. Prior to resentencing, the probation officer prepared a supplement to the original presen-tence investigation report, concluding that Kerr’s 2008 state breaking and entering convictions were each punishable by a presumptive maximum sentence of 14 months’ imprisonment and thus qualified as ACCA predicates. The district court denied counsel’s motion to vacate and dismiss. Agreeing that the prior breaking and entering convictions qualified as ACCA-pred-icate crimes, the court again sentenced Kerr to 268 months’ imprisonment. This appeal followed.
II.
A.
We review de novo the question of whether a prior state conviction is a predicate felony for the purposes of federal criminal law. See United States v. Jones,
B.
To properly analyze Kerr’s arguments, we must first review his 2008 state convictions under the sentencing regime mandated by North Carolina’s statutory framework.
North Carolina’s Structured Sentencing Act directs a judge to impose felony sentences based on two criteria: the designated offense class and the offender’s prior record level. N.C. Gen.Stat. § 15A-1340.13(b). The Act, or in certain cases a different statute, sets forth the offense class. Id. § 15A-1340.17(a). The sentencing judge calculates the offender’s prior record level by adding the points assigned to each of the offender’s prior convictions. Id. § 15A-1340.14(a)-(b).
Next, the judge matches the offense class and prior record level using a statutory table, which provides three sentencing ranges — a mitigated range, a presumptive range, and an aggravated range. Id. § 15A-1340.17(c). As a default, the judge sentences the defendant within the presumptive range. The judge may deviate from the presumptive range, however, if the judge makes written findings of aggravating or mitigating factors established by the Act, finds that aggravating factors outweigh mitigating factors (or vice versa), and chooses to depart from the presumptive range.
C.
We turn now to Kerr’s three 2008 breaking and entering convictions, which constituted Class H felonies. At the time of sentencing for those state convictions, Kerr had a prior record level of IV. Pursuant to the statutory charts, he thus faced a presumptive minimum term of 9 to 11 months’ imprisonment and a corresponding presumptive maximum sentence of 14 months’ imprisonment.
The state sentencing judge found, however, that the factors in mitigation outweighed those in aggravation and that a mitigated sentence was justified. The judge then exercised her discretion to depart from the presumptive range and sentenced Kerr in the mitigated range. The mitigated range included a possible maximum sentence of 11 months’ imprisonment. Ultimately, the judge sentenced Kerr to 8 to 10 months’ imprisonment.
III.
A.
Kerr contends that because the state court judge chose to sentence him in the mitigated, range, he could not have been sentenced to a term of imprisonment for greater than one year for any of his three 2008 breaking and entering convictions.
Simmons did not, however, decide the precise issue before us. Rather, we considered there whether a prior North Carolina state conviction for marijuana possession, for which the defendant faced no possibility of imprisonment, constituted an offense punishable by imprisonment for more than one year, thereby triggering a sentencing enhancement under the Controlled Substances Act. Simmons,
Carachuri-Rosendo had previously been convicted of two misdemeanor drug possession offenses in Texas. Id. at 2580. The government argued nonetheless that Carachuri-Rosendo had been convicted of an aggravated felony because he hypothetically could have received a two-year sentence for his second misdemeanor offense if he had been prosecuted in federal court. Id. at 2582. This was true because a defendant may receive a two-year maximum sentence under federal law for possession of narcotics if the defendant has a prior drag conviction. Id. at 2581.
The Court, however, rejected this hypothetical approach, reasoning that the statutory text “indicates that we are to look to the conviction itself as our starting place, not to what might have or could have been charged.” Id. at 2586. Examining Cara-churi-Rosendo’s second state conviction, the Court noted that he was convicted of a misdemeanor simple drug possession offense without any finding of recidivism. Id. The maximum prison sentence authorized for such a conviction was one year. Id. at 2581 n. 4. Therefore, the Court held that the petitioner was, “not actually convicted” of an offense punishable by a term of imprisonment exceeding one year. Id. at 2586-87 (internal quotation marks omitted).
We subsequently determined that Car-achuri-Rosendo required us to vacate Simmons’s sentence. In reaching this conclusion, we explained that Carachuri-Rosendo directly undermined our earlier decision in Harp. Simmons,
Applying that analysis, we first found that Simmons was convicted of a Class I felony and had a prior record level of I. Id. at 240-41. We explained that
[u]nder the Act, a Class I felony is punishable by a sentence exceeding twelve months’ imprisonment only if the State satisfies two conditions. First, the State must prove (or the defendant must plead to) the existence of aggravating factors sufficient to warrant the imposition of an aggravated sentence. Second, the State must demonstrate that the defendant possesses fourteen or more criminal history points, resulting in a “prior record level” of at least 5. If the State fails to satisfy either of these conditions, a Class I offender can never receive more than one year’s imprisonment.
Id. (internal citations omitted). Because the State satisfied neither condition, id. at 241, we held that Simmons’s prior North
Following our decision in Simmons, we have rejected defendants’ arguments that they lack the requisite predicate felonies because the actual sentence they received under North Carolina law was less than a year of imprisonment. See, e.g., United States v. Edmonds,
We concluded that Edmonds had a qualifying predicate felony because he “could have received” a sentence greater than one year. Id. at 176-77. We reached the same result in Leach. See
B.
Kerr’s appeal presents an issue that neither Simmons nor its progeny expressly address: Must a district court, in determining whether a defendant has the requisite predicate felonies for sentencing as an armed career criminal, consider the fact that the , defendant received a mitigated sentence of less than one year in prison under North Carolina law for those felonies? To answer this question, we return to the Structured Sentencing Act.
As explained above, North Carolina law establishes three' sentencing ranges based on the appropriate offense class and prior record level. N.C. Gen.Stat. § 15A-1340.17(c). The presumptive sentencing range is the default. The sentencing judge may deviate from the presumptive range if the judge makes written findings of aggravating or mitigating factors, finds that aggravating factors outweigh mitigating factors (or vice versa), and chooses to depart. Id. §§ 15A-1340.13(e), 15A-1340.16(b), (c); see also Simmons,
The state court judge who sentenced Kerr found that the relevant mitigating factors outweighed those in aggravation and then chose to exercise her discretion by sentencing Kerr to a mitigated range sentence of 8 to 10 months’ imprisonment for his crimes. But just as in Edmonds, the judge remained free at all times to
We have great respect for our distinguished colleague in dissent. But in focusing — we think myopically — on the actual sentence
IV.
Kerr also contends that the district court erred in denying his motion to vacate his § 922(g)(1) conviction and dismiss the indictment, again because he lacked the requisite predicate felony offense.
As we have already explained, Ken-faced a presumptive maximum sentence of 14 months’ imprisonment for his state convictions. Therefore, Kerr has the requisite predicate felony for his § 922(g)(1) conviction. We thus hold that the district court did not err in denying Kerr’s motion to vacate his conviction and dismiss the indictment.
V.
Finally, we asked the parties to brief whether Kerr’s prior appellate counsel in his first appeal rendered ineffective assistance because he failed to challenge Kerr’s conviction on the basis that Kerr lacked a predicate felony.
When we remanded this case to the district court following Kerr’s first appeal, the district court considered Kerr’s challenge to his conviction on the merits. And
VI.
For the reasons given, we affirm the district court’s judgment.
AFFIRMED.
Notes
. The indictment also alleges that Kerr had been convicted of other crimes that were punishable by imprisonment for a term exceeding one year. The government concedes, and we agree, that Kerr could not have received a sentence in excess of one year for those offenses.
. With respect to the aggravated sentencing range, a judge may depart only if the state has
.In rare cases where the judge finds "extraordinary mitigating factors,” the judge may impose a lesser sentence. Id. § ISA-1340.13(g). The judge does not have discretion to impose a more severe sentence, however, even in extraordinary cases. Simmons,
. After Kerr was sentenced for the three 2008 breaking and entering convictions, the Act's statutory charts were amended to increase the maximum sentences. See Justice Reinvestment Act of 2011, 2011 N.C. Sess. Laws 192 §§ 2(e)-(f).
. Kerr does not contest that these convictions were for crimes of violence.
. Edmonds conceded that one of his prior convictions at issue was a qualifying predicate felony.
. The dissent says that it does not argue "for an assessment of the defendant’s actual sentence” but rather "for an assessment of the defendant's actual sentencing range.” Dis. op. at 43 n. 1. In our view, however, this is a distinction without a difference, as both are inconsistent with the reasoning of Simmons and Edmonds.
. Our holding today is not, as the dissent paints it, "Harp redux,” nor is it paradoxical. Harp summarily branded every defendant facing an ACCA enhancement for his prior North Carolina convictions as the worst possible offender under North Carolina's sentencing scheme. While Simmons rejected that hypothetical approach to federal sentencing, we subsequently made clear "that the qualification of a prior conviction [as a predicate offense] does not depend on the sentence [a defendant] actually received but on the maximum sentence that he could have received for his conviction.” Edmonds,
.We asked the parties to brief whether the mandate rule foreclosed the district court, on remand, from considering Kerr's challenge to his conviction. Both parties contend that the mandate rule does not foreclose this argument, and we agree.
Dissenting Opinion
dissenting:
Respectfully, I dissent.
The majority opinion runs counter to Supreme Court precedent, Carachuri-Rosendo v. Holder,
The Armed Career Criminal Act requires a fifteen-year minimum prison term for a defendant convicted of being a felon in possession of a firearm if he had three previous convictions, “for a violent felony or a serious drug offense.” 18 U.S.C. §§ 924(e)(1), 922(g).' A “violent felony” is defined as, among other things, “any crime punishable by imprisonment for a term exceeding one year.” Id. § 924(e)(2)(B). The issue in this case is: When a North Carolina state judge has made a finding that mitigating factors are present and sufficient to outweigh any aggravating factors, and the defendant’s mitigated sentencing range for a North Carolina conviction therefore does not exceed one year, is the conviction for a crime “punishable by imprisonment for a term exceeding one year”?
The answer is and should be no, but the majority answers yes. It holds that federal courts should ignore the defendant’s mitigated range of imprisonment as determined by the North Carolina judge, N.C. Gen.Stat. § 15A-1340.16(b), and instead look to the sentence the state judge could have imposed had she decided, hypothetically, to ignore her own finding that mitigating circumstances justified a sentence in a range that cannot exceed one year, ante, at 13. See N.C. Gen.Stat. § 15A-1340.16(c).
The majority’s answer is fantasy. It inserts an Alice-in-Wonderland analysis into what should be a straightforward question of statutory construction. But most troubling about the majority opinion is that it resurrects a speculative mode of analysis that we — on the foundation of unmistakable Supreme Court authority — discarded in Simmons,
In United States v. Harp,
We rejected this speculative approach in Simmons, holding that “the mere possibility that [the defendant’s] conduct, coupled with facts outside the record of conviction, could have authorized a conviction of crime punishable by more than one year’s imprisonment cannot and does not demonstrate that [the defendant] was actually convicted of such a crime.”
The primary basis for our decision was Carachuñ-Rosendo,
Carachuñ-Rosendo involved a different statutory scheme and an analysis with multiple layers of speculation, but we concluded in Simmons that the relative simplicity of the Controlled Substances 'Act analysis did “not render the Carachuñ-Rosendo holding inapplicable.” Simmons,
Which brings me to this case: It is difficult to see how the majority’s hypothetical modé of analysis does not run square into the teeth of what Carachuñ-Rosendo and Simmons seek to prohibit. As the majority opinion makes clear, the North Carolina state judge acted consistent with the provisions of the North Carolina Structured Sentencing Act: she made a finding that Kerr’s mitigating factors outweighed those in aggravation, N.C. Gen.Stat.. § 15A-1340.16(b); Kerr had to prove those findings by a preponderance of the evidence, id. § 15A-1340.16(a); her mitigation finding was — and had to be — in writing and part of the record, id. § 15A-1340.16(c); and she used the mitigation finding to arrive at a sentencing range of eight to ten months, as contemplated by North Carolina law.
Despite all of this, the majority concludes that Kerr’s conviction was for a “crime punishable by imprisonment for a term exceeding one year” because the North Carolina state judge “may,” ante, at 38, have nonetheless imprisoned Kerr for up to fourteen months. In other words, Harp redux: “[T]he mere possibility, no matter how remote,” Carachuñ-Rosendo,
The majority responds to all this with a paradox: first, it says that the issue in this case was not before us in Simmons, ante, at 38 (“Kerr’s appeal presents an issue that neither Simmons nor its progeny expressly addressed”); second, it says that a footnote in Simmons resolves this case, ante, at 39 (“Our holding remains faithful to our directive in Simmons requiring that sentencing courts examine ‘three pieces of evidence: the offense class, the offender’s prior record level, and the applicability of the aggravated sentencing range,’
Let’s unscramble that egg: The majority’s position is that although Simmons does not mandate a particular outcome here, its “directive” is nonetheless consistent with the majority’s decision. Wrong on both counts. But, even if Simmons were deemed in some sense “consistent” with the majority’s decision, the decision I reach is equally “consistent” and achieves the more' sensible result.
The majority’s first argument, that Simmons does not mandate a particular outcome here, is incorrect because it is based on a misunderstanding of the issue in this case. The majority frames the issue as: “Must a district court, in determining whether a defendant has the requisite predicate felonies for sentencing as an armed career criminal, consider the fact that the defendant received a mitigated sentence of less than one year in prison under North Carolina law for those felonies?” Ante, at 38 (emphasis added). That framing subtly misconstrues the issue in this case: it is not the “fact” of the defendant’s actual sentence that is relevant or the focus of this analysis, but the defendant’s actual sentencing range. The North Carolina state court judge made an express finding — a real-world fact — that mitigating factors outweighed those in aggravation; indeed, she made that finding because it is a predicate to sentencing in the mitigated range. N.C. Gen.Stat. § 15A-1340.16(b).
The majority’s framing of the issue seems to be based on a peculiar understanding of the North Carolina Structured Sentencing Act: it thinks that a North Carolina judge is always in the presumptive range because she has the discretion to sentence in that range even after she’s made the mitigation finding. State v. Bivens,
Although the majority is correct that a North Carolina judge retains the discretion to sentence in the presumptive range even when the judge finds several mitigating factors, the existence of that possibility alone is an insufficient basis for ignoring the range as determined according to the North Carolina Structured Sentencing Act. We said as much in Simmons: North Carolina judges always have the discretion to use the presumptive range even after the state has proven the existence of aggravating factors, N.C. Gen.Stat. § 15A-1340.16(a), but we stated that federal district courts should pay close attention to the actual presence and proof of those aggravating factors, rather than some hypothetical analysis, because it is a more coherent and just analysis that better informs whether a defendant is deserving of a major imprisonment term. Simmons,
In Carachuri-Rosendo, the Court acknowledged that Texas law afforded prosecutors broad discretion in determining whether to seek a conviction whose punishment would satisfy an element of federal law (there, in the immigration context); nevertheless, that fact did not persuade the Court to base its analysis of federal law on the existence of such discretion. See
The majority’s approach builds an unwarranted asymmetry into our treatment of North Carolina convictions, where we pay special attention, if not conclusive attention, to a finding of aggravation, but purposely ignore a judge’s finding of mitigation. To build our jurisprudence on this asymmetry expresses the view that federal sentencing courts do not really care about a defendant’s criminal background — or at least, they only care when it offers up the opportunity to send him to prison for a longer period of time than common sense and simple justice demand.
The majority’s second argument is that its holding “remains faithful to our directive in Simmons requiring that sentencing courts examine ‘three pieces of evidence: the offense class, the offender’s prior record level, and the applicability of the aggravated sentencing range,’
The majority’s constricted reading of Simmons stems from its refusal to acknowledge the principles that animated the core holding of Simmons: “well-established federalism principles” that prohibit federal courts from “rejectfing] North Carolina’s judgment as to the seriousness of a North Carolina crime, prosecuted in a North Carolina court and adjudicated by a North Carolina judge,” Simmons,
It is the last point that resonates most. The majority opinion is profoundly wrong on the law. But what is most concerning is how completely untethered its analysis is from the task before federal district judges in these cases: to decide who should be treated as a repeat offender responsible for a disproportionately large percentage of violent crimes, i.e., an armed career criminal. See United States v. Hawkins,
And even if there were a colorable argument that Congress intended these types of results, the rule of lenity requires much better evidence before adoption of the majority’s construction of the Armed Career Criminal Act. At best, it is not at all clear what Congress wants federal courts to do with these peculiar wrinkles in North Carolina’s Structured Sentencing Act, and we should not render a construction that increases the penalty on a defendant when that construction is “based on no more than a guess as to what Congress intend
Whether a prior state judge has made a written factual finding that the circumstances in a particular case are atypical and warrant application of a mitigated sentencing range that by definition does not exceed one year is a highly relevant data point in assessing whether an individual is an armed career criminal. The majority does not think so; it is wrong. But the true error it commits is justifying its decision by sticking its head in the sand of legal artifice.
I am willing to believe, and to act on the belief, that “no one — not even the prosecutors themselves — thinks [a twenty-two-year sentence on a fifty-one-year-old mentally ill veteran is] appropriate” under the circumstances of this case. Cf. United States v. Kupa, — F.Supp.2d-,-,
. The majority is determined to hang its hat on United States v. Edmonds,
. As Justice Souter explained:
The rule [of lenity] is grounded in "the instinctive distaste against men languishing in prison unless the lawmaker has clearly said they should,” and we have used it to resolve questions both about metes and bounds of criminal conduct and about the severity of sentencing. This policy of lenity means that the Court will not interpret a federal criminal statute so as to increase the penalty that it places on an individual when such an interpretation can be based on no more than a guess as to what Congress intended.
United States v. Rodriquez,