US v. Shanton: After committing a pair of bank robberies in 2007, Shanton pleaded guilty to (among other things) two counts of being a felon in possession of a firearm. At sentencing, he was sentenced under the Armed Career Criminal Act on those two counts and received a total sentence of 608 months in prison. In an already pending §2255 motion, Shanton argued (after the Supreme Court’s decision in Johnson) that two of his prior convictions, for robbery in Maryland, no longer qualified as “violent felonies.” The district court disagreed and dismissed the §2255 motion.
On appeal, the Fourth Circuit affirmed the denial of Shanton’s §2255 motion. The court noted that in 2019 it had held that Maryland robbery still qualified as a violent felony after Johnson. Shanton argued that the Supreme Court’s decision in Borden rendered that decision inapplicable because robbery in Maryland could be committed with a mens rea or recklessness and thus not qualify as a violent felony. The court disagreed, holding that the mens rea of common-law robbery applies not only to the larceny element of the offense but to the use of force (or threat thereof) itself.
No comments:
Post a Comment