Court Continues the Limitation of Campbell With Delaware Drug Offenses

US v. Starkey: Starkey was convicted of a “federal drug-trafficking crime” and sentenced to 300 months in prison as a career offender. A basis for the career offender designation was to prior Delaware convictions for delivery of controlled substances. The district court rejected Starkey’s argument that those convictions did not constitute “controlled substance offenses,” and thus career offender predicates, under Campbell.

On appeal, the Fourth Circuit affirmed Starkey’s sentence. In a brief five-page opinion, the court put the Delaware statute at issue in the same box as other drug offenses it had previously held were not controlled by Campbell, applying the logic of Groves and other cases. Thus Campbell (to the extent its relevant in light of recent Guideline amendments) remains limited to West Virginia drug offenses.