Robert Cravens v. United States
Opinion
Robert Keith Cravens sought post-conviction relief on the ground that his 216-month prison sentence under the Armed Career Criminal Act ("ACCA"),
Cravens pleaded guilty in 2010 to a two-count indictment. Count Two charged unlawful possession of a firearm by a previously convicted felon, and alleged that enhanced punishment was warranted under the ACCA for a minimum term of 15 years and a maximum of life imprisonment.
See
A defendant is subject to an enhanced sentence under the ACCA if he has three or more previous convictions for a violent felony or a serious drug offense.
After the Supreme Court held in
Johnson v. United States
, --- U.S. ----,
The district court denied relief, concluding that Cravens still had at least three qualifying convictions under the ACCA. We have since held, however, that neither Illinois burglary nor Missouri second-degree burglary are violent felonies under the ACCA.
See
United States v. Byas
,
The government argues, however, that Cravens is not entitled to resentencing, because the district court
could have
imposed the same 216-month sentence by ordering Cravens's sentences on the two counts of conviction to be served consecutively rather than concurrently. In
Sun Bear v. United States
,
Unlike the movant in Sun Bear , Cravens has established that his sentence was both in excess of the statutory maximum and imposed in violation of the Constitution because it was based on the ACCA's unconstitutionally vague residual clause. Cravens's claim of constitutional error is cognizable under § 2255, and he is entitled to relief unless the error was harmless.
A constitutional error is harmless in a post-conviction proceeding if the error did not have "substantial and injurious effect or influence" on the outcome of the proceeding and caused no "actual prejudice" to the defendant.
Brecht v. Abrahamson
,
Although it is true that the district court could have elected to impose a 216-month sentence in the original proceeding by running the two sentences consecutively, we cannot say with fair assurance that the court would have done so. Without the ACCA enhancement, the advisory sentencing
*894
guidelines would have recommended a sentencing range of 168 to 210 months' imprisonment, so the court would have been required to depart or vary upward to reach a term of 216 months. The district court never said that it would have imposed the same sentence without the enhancement, and it seemed to signal the contrary in the post-conviction proceeding. In its order denying relief under § 2255, the court said that "[w]ithout the Illinois burglary conviction as a third ACCA predicate, then, Cravens was improperly sentenced
and merits relief
." Aside from the term of imprisonment, moreover, it is clear that the ACCA enhancement affected the length of the five-year term of supervised release. Without § 924(e), the maximum term on each count would have been three years,
see
For the foregoing reasons, we reverse and remand with directions to resentence Cravens without the enhancement under
The parties suggested in the district court that a 2010 conviction for second-degree domestic assault in Missouri was a fourth predicate offense. The presentence report, however, did not rely on this conviction for the ACCA enhancement, and Cravens was convicted of the domestic assault
after
he committed the offense at issue here, so it would not qualify.
See
United States v. Talley
,
In an unpublished opinion,
Olten v. United States
,
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Robert Keith CRAVENS, Petitioner-Appellant, v. UNITED STATES of America, Respondent-Appellee.
- Cited By
- 6 cases
- Status
- Published