Source: http://openjurist.org/975/f2d/1080/united-states-v-bowden
Timestamp: 2015-11-27 04:39:09
Document Index: 382633611

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 924', '§ 4', '§ 924', '§ 922', '§ 5841', '§ 922', '§ 924', '§ 924', '§ 922', '§ 922', '§ 924', '§ 4', '§ 922', '§ 924', '§ 924', '§ 922']

975 F2d 1080 United States v. Bowden | OpenJurist
975 F. 2d 1080 - United States v. Bowden HomeFederal Reporter, Second Series 975 F.2d.
975 F2d 1080 United States v. Bowden 975 F.2d 1080
UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee,v.Glynn BOWDEN, Defendant-Appellant.
No. 91-5333.
Argued April 10, 1992.Decided Sept. 21, 1992.
Wayne James Payne, Powell & Payne, Shallote, N.C., argued for defendant-appellant.
Richard Bruce Conely, Sr., Asst. U.S. Atty., Raleigh, N.C., argued (Margaret Person Currin, U.S. Atty., on brief), for plaintiff-appellee.
Glynn Bowden appeals from the sentence imposed upon him by the United States District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina following his conviction on pleas of guilty to federal firearms charges. Bowden received an enhanced sentence as an armed career criminal pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 924(e) and U.S.S.G. § 4B1.4. He now challenges that enhancement, claiming that certain of his prior state convictions should not be counted as predicate "violent felonies" as defined in § 924(e). Finding no merit in this argument, we affirm.
On January 8, 1991, a federal grand jury handed down an indictment charging Bowden with one count of possession of firearms by a convicted felon, a violation of 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1), and one count of possession of an unregistered firearm, a rifle with a barrel length of approximately 5 3/8 inches and an overall length of approximately 14 1/8 inches, a violation of 26 U.S.C. §§ 5841, 5845(a)(3), and 5861(d). Bowden was also charged with a separate violation of § 922(g)(1) in a second indictment returned that same day. On February 20, 1991, the government served notice on Bowden that he would be subject to the enhanced penalty provisions of the Armed Career Criminal Act, 18 U.S.C. § 924(e).
Plea negotiations ensued, and on February 25, 1991, the parties executed a plea agreement. Bowden agreed to plead guilty to both counts of the first indictment. For its part the government agreed to dismiss the second indictment at the time of his sentencing. The plea agreement recognized that the enhanced sentencing provision of § 924(e) "[would be] applicable" to the sentence imposed on the § 922(g)(1) count. Also on February 25, a plea acceptance hearing was held pursuant to Fed.R.Crim.P. 11. At that hearing Bowden again acknowledged the plea agreement that the Armed Career Criminal Act enhancement would apply to the § 922(g)(1) charge.
The probation officer submitted a presentence report on April 19, 1991. The presentence report stated that the prerequisites for application of the armed career criminal enhancement had been satisfied, and accordingly recommended that Bowden be sentenced to an enhanced prison term pursuant to § 924(e) and U.S.S.G. § 4B1.4. The probation officer thus set Bowden's total offense level at 32, with a criminal history category of VI, yielding an imprisonment range of between 210 to 262 months. Bowden filed certain objections to the presentence report; among them was a challenge to the applicability of the armed career criminal enhancement.
Bowden went before the district court for sentencing on June 10, 1991. The court considered and rejected each of Bowden's objections to the presentence report, including the objection to the armed career criminal enhancement. The court then adopted the factual findings and guideline calculations contained in the presentence report and sentenced Bowden to a prison term of 210 months. Bowden timely appealed, and we now turn to his claims of error.1
The sentencing enhancement provision principally relevant here, the Armed Career Criminal Act, provides in relevant part as follows:
(e)(1) In the case of a person who violates [18 U.S.C. § 922(g) ] and has three previous convictions ... for a violent felony ... committed on occasions different from one another, such person shall be fined not more than $25,000 and imprisoned not less than fifteen years
....(B) the term "violent felony" means any crime punishable by imprisonment for a term exceeding one year ..., that--
18 U.S.C. § 924(e). Thus, § 924(e) imposes a mandatory minimum 15-year prison sentence on any person convicted of any of the federal firearms offenses set out in 18 U.S.C. § 922(g) who also has three prior convictions for "violent felonies" as def