Opinion ID: 2997036
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Designation of 1993 Conviction as “Serious

Text: Drug Offense” Henton argues that the district court erred in determining that his 1993 Illinois conviction for possessing less than one gram of cocaine constituted a “serious drug offense” under ACCA. He claims that his crime was not one for which more than ten years of imprisonment is authorized, because the non-extended term under the Illinois statute can be no more than seven years, and “[a]t no time 4 No. 03-3657 [did] the Court, or anyone else, tell [him] that the state [had] extended the term” to the seven-to-fourteen-year range. Under the Armed Career Criminal Act, a defendant who has been found guilty of possessing a weapon after committing a felony must be sentenced to a minimum term of 15 years’ imprisonment if he has previously been convicted of three “serious drug offenses.” 18 U.S.C. § 924(e)(1). ACCA defines a “serious drug offense” as “an offense under State law, involving the manufacturing, distributing, or possessing with intent to manufacture or distribute, a controlled substance . . . , for which a maximum term of imprisonment of ten years is prescribed by law.” Id. Whether a crime counts toward designating a defendant as an armed career criminal under ACCA is a question of law, which we review de novo. United States v. Gillaum, 355 F.3d 982, 993 (7th Cir. 2004). In this case, the statute that led to Henton’s 1993 conviction provides that possession of less than a gram of cocaine with the intent to deliver is a Class 2 felony, punishable by three to seven years’ imprisonment. Ill. Rev. Stat., Ch. 56 ½, ¶ 1401(d). The statute also provides, however, that “any person convicted of a second or subsequent offense under this act may be sentenced to imprisonment for a term up to twice the maximum term otherwise authorized.” Id. ¶ 1408(a). Henton concedes that he had a previous Illinois drug conviction at the time of his 1993 conviction, so he was eligible for up to fourteen years’ imprisonment. Although Henton argues that the state’s failure to expressly invoke the extended-term provision of the statute meant that he was not subject to it, the statute does not contain any prerequisites, other than recidivism, to qualify for the extended term. Cf. United States v. Williams, 326 F.3d 535, 539-40 (4th Cir. 2003) (state drug statute required that prosecutor make an “application” for the extended term and establish defendant’s prior crime by a preponderance of the No. 03-3657 5 evidence). More importantly, it is irrelevant under ACCA whether Henton actually received an extended sentence on his 1993 conviction; what matters is the sentence that the state statute made possible. Taylor v. United States, 495 U.S. 575, 600 (1990) (district courts should look “only to the statutory definitions of the prior offenses, and not to the particular facts underlying these convictions”); United States v. Coleman, 158 F.3d 199, 203-04 (4th Cir. 1998) (fact that defendant received only a six-month sentence not relevant to whether crime counted under ACCA). Because Henton was eligible for up to fourteen years’ imprisonment, the district court properly concluded that the 1993 conviction qualifies as a “serious drug offense” under ACCA.