Attempted Armed Bank Robbery Is Crime of Violence

US v. Straite: In 2009, Straite and some associates robbed a bank in North Carolina, then returned a few months later to try and rob it again (they were foiled when the bank manager saw them coming and locked them out). He was convicted of armed bank robbery, attempted armed bank robbery (under 18 U.S.C. § 2113(a) and (d)), and two counts of brandishing firearms in connection with those offenses. The district court denied his subsequent §2255 motion seeking to vacate one of the firearm offenses because attempted bank robbery did not qualify as a “crime of violence.”

The Fourth Circuit granted a certificate of appealability on that issue and ultimately affirmed the denial of Straite’s §2255 motion. The court noted that in 1984 it had held that the elements of an attempted bank robbery were only (1) intent to commit such a bank robbery and (2) a substantial step toward the crime – which would not include an element requiring the use or threatened use of force. But it concluded that holding “appears to be in tension with the statutory text” of §2113(a), which states that whoever “by force and violence, or by intimidation takes, or attempts to take, from the presence of another . . ..” The key phrase (“by force and violence, or by intimidation”), the court concluded, modifies both “takes” and “attempts to take,” thus requiring the use or threatened use of force. The court contrasted that to the Hobbs Act, which “very clearly distinguishes between actual robbery and attempt.” In the alternative, §2113(d), under which Straite was also convicted, requires assault with a deadly weapon, which satisfies the force required to make it a crime of violence.