Source: https://www.lawfareblog.com/how-dimaya-v-sessions-has-affected-sentencing-terrorism-convictions
Timestamp: 2019-04-23 12:12:39+00:00

Document:
In August, two convicted terrorists were released from prison unexpectedly early. The two originally received enhanced sentences under a statute that established mandatory minimum sentence extensions for the use of a firearm in conjunction with a violent felony, but the judge who released them held that the statute was unconstitutional under Sessions v. Dimaya, a case the Supreme Court decided in April. Dimaya has already had significant repercussions in criminal sentencing, and it is likely to affect how terrorists—and other felons—are prosecuted in the future.
(b) any other offense that is a felony and that, by its nature, involves a substantial risk that physical force against the person or property of another may be used in the course of committing the offense.
The statute has traditionally been applied using the “ordinary case” framework, under which the judge assesses whether there is a “substantial risk of physical force” in an “ordinary” instance of the predicate offense, as opposed to the specific instance of the defendant’s crime. The Dimaya court held that 18 U.S.C. §16(b), as applied under this framework, contained the same two characteristics that made the ACCA’s residual clause unconstitutional in Johnson: (1) an ordinary-case requirement and (2) an “ill-defined risk threshold,” under which a judge must determine whether there is a “substantial risk” of physical force in a theoretical ordinary case of the crime. (Justice Neil Gorsuch, in his concurrence, described this as a “judge-imagined abstraction.”) According to Dimaya and Johnson, the combination of the two inexact formulations is simply a bridge too far for a defendant to reasonably anticipate. (For more, see Eliot Kim’s discussion of Dimaya).
When Dimaya was issued, many noted its potentially broad implications. In the intervening months, the decision has been brought to bear in a significant way in numerous cases, among them one particular class of cases: sentencing enhancements for use of a firearm in conjunction with terrorism felonies, under 18 U.S.C. §924(c).
(iii) if the firearm is discharged, be sentenced to a term of imprisonment of not less than 10 years.
Section 924(c) is a common sentence-enhancer; it applies to any potentially violent felony that involves a firearm. It is frequently used to increase sentences for robbery and similar offenses. While the Supreme Court did not specifically hold Section 924(c)(3)(B) unconstitutional, in the wake of Dimaya it has vacated and remanded several cases that center on the provision. Every appellate court that has ruled on Section 924(c)(3)(B) has agreed that under Dimaya, the residual clause is unconstitutionally vague if the ordinary-case approach is used.
Several circuit courts have noted, however, that the statute can also be interpreted under the conduct-specific approach, which would require that a “crime of violence” under Section 924(c)(3)(B) be determined by examining the defendant's actual conduct in a given case. Justice Clarence Thomas initially suggested this reinterpretation in his dissent in Johnson and reiterated it in his dissent in Dimaya. As this approach considers the specific circumstances of the case rather than a theoretical ordinary case, there is no vagueness and thus no constitutional difficulties under Dimaya. Courts have traditionally used the ordinary-case framework on the grounds that the phrase “by its nature” suggests that framework. But these courts have held that the statutory language does not completely exclude the specific-case approach. As a result, these courts have determined that the constitutional avoidance canon—which says that courts should if at all possible interpret a statute to avoid constitutional problems, rather than simply invalidating the statute—requires the use of this approach.
But this approach is not universal. The Seventh Circuit refused to apply the conduct-specific framework, noting that Justice Thomas’s Dimaya opinion was joined by only two other justices and that no other justice joined his Johnson dissent. The circuit court held that since the Supreme Court had not established that the conduct-specific framework could be used—and Justice Gorsuch’s concurrence had specifically observed that Supreme Court precedent required the ordinary-case framework—the lower court could not use the alternate approach.
Although all these various activities occurred at the periphery of—and, in some cases, with the intent to support—violent actions undertaken by others, including co-conspirators and LET members, there is insufficient evidence in this record that these actions involved either [the defendant]'s actual use of force or a substantial risk that [the defendant] would use force.
Courts have disagreed on whether the unconstitutionality of §924(c)(3)(B) is a right “newly recognized by the Supreme Court,” as well as whether that right has been made retroactively applicable. Under Johnson, several courts, including the Fourth, Sixth and Tenth Circuits, ruled that the Supreme Court had not created a new right on which the movants appealing convictions unrelated to the ACCA could rely.
Since Dimaya, some of these courts have changed their stance. For example, in United States v. Nguyen, the Tenth Circuit held that Dimaya was broader than Johnson and thus could be used as the basis for a newly recognized right for appeals under statutes other than the ACCA. Because the court had previously held that Dimaya extended Johnson’s reasoning to §924(c)(3), the Tenth Circuit reasoned, Dimaya had newly recognized a right that the movant could rely on, and thus the appeal under Johnson was timely.
While the Fourth Circuit has not opined on this issue since Dimaya, Judge Brinkema ruled that under Fourth Circuit precedent, Sections 924(c)(3)(B) and 16(b) have been interpreted identically, and thus Dimaya recognizes a new right under both. She therefore vacated the convictions.
Judge Brinkema had previously indicated that she was unhappy with the sentences she imposed; she considered them far too severe. However, she had no discretion due to the mandatory sentencing enhancements under Section 924(c). After vacating the charges under that statute, Judge Brinkema ordered Khan and Chapman released immediately; Royer was already out of prison on a plea bargain. Khan and Chapman had each served more than the 120 months to which they were sentenced under the convictions that remained.
It is unclear how many defendants have been convicted of crimes related to terrorism under Section 924(c), but the federal courts may see more appeals under Dimaya. Whether these appeals are considered timely is likely to depend on the circuit, unless the Supreme Court decides to step in. In any case, defendants will have only until April 17, 2019—a year from the Dimaya decision—to initiate appeals, so the number of these cases is likely to be fairly limited.
The more significant impact will be on future cases. Dimaya does not affect convictions for terrorist acts. But it mandates that convictions under Section 924(c), whose purpose is exclusively to lengthen a sentence, be tied to the specific circumstances of the crime at issue—requiring that the crime include a substantial risk that the defendant would use physical force in committing the charged offenses. Khan and Chapman’s sentences were cut from life and 780 months, respectively, to 120 months. In the long term, Dimaya will likely result in shorter sentences for terrorist crimes in which the defendant does not personally commit violent acts but, rather, provides other kinds of support to terrorist groups.
Stephanie Zable is a graduate of University of Michigan Law School and Johns Hopkins SAIS concentrating in strategic studies. Prior to law school, she lived in China for four years and spent a year traveling through Europe and Asia. She graduated from Oberlin College with a degree in math and politics.

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