Rubin Dexter Baxter v. United States
Opinion
Rubin Baxter was convicted in 2002 of being a felon in possession of a firearm. His sentence was enhanced under the Armed Career Criminal Act based on a 1987 Florida conviction for armed robbery, 1987 Florida convictions for armed robbery and kidnapping, and a 1990 conviction for selling and delivery of cocaine. After the Supreme Court’s decision in Johnson v. United States, 576 U.S. -,
For a defendant’s sentence to be enhanced under the ACCA, he must have at least three earlier convictions for “violent felonies” or “serious drug offenses” at the time he is sentenced. See
This Court has already concluded, however, that armed robbery convictions under Florida’s robbery statute qualify as violent felonies under the ACCA’s elements clause. United States v. Fritts,
Baxter protests that, at the time he was convicted of armed robbery, “sudden snatching” using “any degree of force” was sufficient to allow a defendant to be convicted of robbery in Florida because the Florida Supreme Court had not yet decided Robinson v. State,
But we squarely rejected that argument in our Fritts decision.
Attempting to avoid the inevitable, Baxter argues that Fritts does not apply here because the defendant’s armed robbery conviction in that case was obtained within the jurisdiction of Florida’s Second District Court of Appeal, but his conviction was obtained within the Fourth District. Baxter claims that when he was convicted of robbery in 1987 the Fourth District, unlike the Second District, had suggested that snatching was sufficient to support a robbery conviction.
That, however, is irrelevant. We are concerned with what sufficed to allow a conviction for burglary in Florida as a whole, not in the Fourth District alone. As we explained in Fritts itself, “[w]hen the Florida Supreme Court in Robinson interpret[ed] the robbery statute, it [told] us what that statute always meant.” Fritts,
Even if Baxter is right that, before Robinson, the Fourth District Court of Appeal reached a contrary conclusion in its Santiago v. State decision,
If Baxter believes that the courts in the Fourth District misapplied state law by allowing him to be convicted of robbery in 1987 based on mere snatching, that was an issue he should have raised on direct appeal from his armed robbery convictions or in collateral proceedings challenging them. That the Fourth District may have erred in interpreting Florida law in Baxter’s robbery cases or in other cases, however, has no bearing on whether convictions under Florida’s robbery statute, as a categorical matter, qualify as violent felonies under the ACCA’s elements clause. Cf. Descamps v. United States,
. Our decision in United States v. Welch,
Because Baxter’s 1987 armed robbery convictions still qualify as violent felonies in the wake of Johnson, his sentence was properly enhanced under the ACCA. The district court did not err by denying his § 2255 motion.
AFFIRMED.
. Baxter does not contend his 1990 conviction for selling and delivering cocaine should not count as a serious drug offense under the ACCA. And we need not consider his contention that his kidnapping conviction does not qualify as a violent felony conviction becausé that question is beyond the scope of the Certificate of Appealability in this case. Plus, as we explain below, Baxter’s two armed robbery convictions do qualify as violent felonies. As a result, even if his kidnapping conviction did not count as a violent felony, Baxter has three convictions for a violent felony or serious drug offense: the two robbery convictions and his conviction for selling and delivering cocaine.
. The Welch decision’s holding, of course, has been abrogated by the Supreme Court’s decision in Johnson, - U.S. -,
. Baxter also cites various post-Robinson cases from the Florida Courts of Appeal to suggest that, even after Robinson, the amount of force necessary to commit a robbery in Florida is not sufficient to bring that offense within the elements clause. But that argument is squarely foreclosed by a long
line
of precedent from this Court, including Fritts, which has held that, both pre- and post-Robinson violations of Florida’s robbery statute do qualify as a violent felonies under the ACCA’s elements clause. Fritts,
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Rubin Dexter BAXTER, Petitioner-Appellant, v. UNITED STATES of America, Respondent-Appellee
- Status
- Unpublished