Assault With Intent to Rob Postal Employee Is Crime of Violence

US v. Bryant: Bryant was convicted in 2010 of assaulting a postal employee with intent to rob, steal or purloin and placing their life in jeopardy, along with brandishing a firearm in connection with a crime of violence (there is no discussion of what actually occurred in the opinion). In the wake of Johnson in 2015, Bryan filed a 2255 motion arguing that his assault conviction was not a “crime of violence” as defined in 18 USC § 924(c). The district court denied the motion.

The Fourth Circuit affirmed. Recognizing that the relevant statute was divisible into at least two different offenses, the issue was whether both of them could be committed in aggravated fashion, or only the robbery offenses could. The court held that both offenses could be committed in aggravated fashion, noting that while the arrangement of the clauses and the omission of “assault” from one clause suggested otherwise, “all of the other evidence” favored that conclusion. That includes the history of the statute (which dates to 1792), which showed that attempting to commit a robbery related back to the assault. Thus defined, the court moved on to the ultimate issue, which was whether the “additional life-in-jeopardy-with-a-dangerous-weapon element transforms such an assault into a crime of violence under the force clause.” The court held that it did, because the use of a weapon “ensures that at least the threat of physical force is present.”