United States v. Lyons Bynum

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
United States v. Lyons Bynum, 536 F. App'x 669 (8th Cir. 2013)
Beam, Gruender, Per Curiam, Shepherd

United States v. Lyons Bynum

Opinion

PER CURIAM.

After trial, a jury found Lyons Lonnie Bynum guilty of unlawful possession of a firearm by a previously convicted felon, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1). The district court 1 sentenced Bynum to 120 months’ imprisonment, rejecting the Government’s contention that at least one of Bynum’s prior convictions triggered the 180-month mandatory minimum under the Armed Career Criminal Act (“ACCA”). See 18 U.S.C. § 924(e). Bynum appealed the sufficiency of the evidence supporting his conviction, and the Government cross-appealed the district court’s refusal to apply the ACCA mandatory minimum. We affirmed Bynum’s conviction but reversed the district court’s sentence. We found that Bynum’s prior third-degree Minnesota drug conviction was a predicate offence within the meaning of the ACCA, thus requiring imposition of the mandatory minimum. United States v. Bynum, 669 F.3d 880, 887-88 (8th Cir. 2012). On remand for resentencing, Bynum was sentenced to 180 months’ imprisonment. He appeals this sentence, arguing that — despite Almendarez-Torres v. United States, 523 U.S. 224, 118 S.Ct. 1219, 140 L.Ed.2d 350 (1998)—the Fifth and Sixth Amendments require the fact of his prior convic *670 tion to be found by a jury. We affirm the new sentence.

Bynum contends that this court can and must disregard the Almendarez-Toms rule given recent indications that a majority of the Supreme Court may no longer agree with it. In a supplemental Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 28{j) letter, Bynum asserts that the Supreme Court hinted at this jurisprudential shift in Alleyne v. United States, 570 - U.S. -, 133 S.Ct. 2151, 186 L.Ed.2d 314 (2013). We recently observed, however, that the Supreme Court in Alleyne “left intact the [Almendarez-Torres ] rule that enhancements based on the fact of a prior conviction are an exception to the general rule that facts increasing the prescribed range of penalties must be presented to a jury.” United States v. Abrahamson, 731 F.3d 751, 752, 2013 WL 4780090 (8th Cir. 2013) (citing Alleyne, 133 S.Ct. at 2160 & n. 1). See also United States v. Torres-Alvarado, 416 F.3d 808, 810 (8th Cir. 2005) (“While it is unclear whether Almendarez-Toms and its felony exception will remain good law, ... we are bound by Almendarez-Torres until the Supreme Court explicitly overrules it.”).

Therefore, we affirm Bynum’s sentence.

1

. The Honorable Richard H. Kyle, United States District Judge for the District of Minnesota.

Reference

Full Case Name
UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee v. Lyons Lonnie BYNUM, Defendant-Appellant
Cited By
1 case
Status
Unpublished