NY Robbery Is Three-Strike Predicate

US v. Johnson: Johnson was charged with multiple counts arising from a bank robbery. Prior to trial, the Government had filed an 851 information charging that Johnson had two prior convictions for “serious violent felonies” under the three-strike statute (18 USC 3559(c)) – a prior federal bank robbery and a robbery in New York. Faced with a mandatory life sentence if convicted at trial, Johnson agreed to plead guilty to the charges in return for the Government withdrawing the information. As a result, he was sentenced to 420 months in prison. In the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision in Johnson, Johnson filed a motion to vacate his sentence. The district court granted the motion, reducing his sentence on a felon-in-possession charge, but imposed an overall sentence of 420 months, holding that Johnson was still eligible for a three-strikes life sentence and was still receiving the benefit of the plea agreement he entered into.

Johnson appealed, arguing that the district court legally erred by concluding that his prior New York robbery conviction was a serious violent felony and he still qualified for a three-strikes sentence. The Fourth Circuit disagreed and affirmed Johnson’s sentence. The court held that New York robbery is sufficiently similar to the enumerated offense of robbery in the statute in that it shared with the various forms of federal robbery the element of a “theft or attempted theft by force.”