United States v. Degeare

In 2014, defendant Joseph Degeare pleaded guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm, and the sentencing court imposed a 15-year prison sentence under the Armed Career Criminal Act, 18 U.S.C. § 924(e). In doing so, the sentencing court treated five of Degeare’s previous Oklahoma convictions as ACCA predicates: (1) his 1990 conviction for forcible sodomy; (2) his two 1994 convictions for forcible sodomy; (3) his 1994 conviction for lewd molestation of a minor; and (4) his 2003 conviction for possession with intent to distribute. Degeare didn’t appeal. But in 2015, he sought habeas relief . After the district court denied his motion, Degeare filed an untimely notice of appeal. The Tenth Circuit dismissed, and the Supreme Court denied review. Relying on Johnson v. United States, 135 S. Ct. 2551 (2015), and Welch v. United States, 136 S. Ct. 1257 (2016), Degeare then sought and received authorization to file a second or successive postconviction motion for relief. In that motion, Degeare argued that the sentencing court erred in treating his previous convictions as ACCA predicates. The Tenth Circuit was faced with the issue of what offenses constitute violent felonies to make them predicate offenses for the ACCA. The Tenth Circuit hadn’t yet addressed the precise level of certainty this standard requires; whatever the term “certainty” might mean, “it doesn’t encompass the significant doubt we’re left with here. And because we can’t be ‘certain’ that the offense at issue in this appeal is ‘necessarily’ a violent felony,” the Court concluded the district court erred in treating it as one for purposes of denying defendant’s successive 28 U.S.C. 2255 motion. Accordingly, the Court reversed. View "United States v. Degeare" on Justia Law