Opinion ID: 196452
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Restoration of Felon Firearm Civil Rights

Text: 11 Bartelho appeals his conviction under 18 U.S.C. Sec. 922(g)(1) (1994), which provides that it is unlawful for anyone who has been convicted in any court of a crime punishable by imprisonment for a term exceeding one year ... to possess ... any firearm. Bartelho's last conviction before the instant crime was in 1990, when he served one year of a five-year prison sentence. As noted in the facts, the police discovered a semiautomatic rifle during their search of the Harris-Bartelho apartment in close proximity to the place where they also discovered defendant-appellant Bartelho, and at trial the government presented Harris' taped pretrial statement that Bartelho had threatened her while holding this weapon. 12 According to Bartelho, the district court erred in denying his motion to dismiss, which contended (1) that the government was required to prove that his right to bear arms had not been restored by the State of Rhode Island, and (2) that the government failed to carry this purported burden. Bartelho reiterates this argument on appeal. The argument depends on his interpretation of 18 U.S.C. Sec. 921(a)(20) (1994), which defines the term crime punishable by imprisonment for a term exceeding one year in Sec. 922(g)(1) as follows: 13 What constitutes a conviction of such a crime shall be determined in accordance with the law of the jurisdiction in which the proceedings were held. Any conviction which has been expunged, or set aside or for which a person has been pardoned or has had civil rights restored shall not be considered a conviction for purposes of this chapter, unless such pardon, expungement, or restoration of civil rights expressly provides that the person may not ship, transport, possess, or receive firearms. 14 Bartelho argues that because Rhode Island has provided for possible restoration of his civil right to carry a firearm, to convict him under Sec. 922(g)(1), the government bears the burden of showing that such restoration has not occurred. In short, Bartelho proposes that we treat this showing as an element of the offense. 15 We reject Bartelho's argument because we conclude that a showing that the right to carry a firearm has not been restored is not an element of a Sec. 922(g) violation. In United States v. Ramos, 961 F.2d 1003, 1006 (1st Cir.1992), we read Sec. 922(a)(1) to require proof of three elements: 16 (1) that the accused is a convicted felon; 17 (2) who knowingly possessed a firearm; 18 (3) which was connected with interstate commerce. 19 Id. at 1006; see also United States v. Flower, 29 F.3d 530, 534 (10th Cir.1994) (citing United States v. Shunk, 881 F.2d 917, 921 (10th Cir.1989)); United States v. Sherbondy, 865 F.2d 996, 1001-03 (9th Cir.1988). 20 While neither Sec. 921(a)(20) nor Sec. 922(g)(1) explicitly describes the role that the Sec. 921(a)(20) definition should play or specifies who must initially raise or ultimately bear the burden of proof on the issue of the predicate conviction's continuing vitality, we conclude that Sec. 921(a)(20) is merely a legal definition for the phrase conviction for a term exceeding one year in Sec. 922(g)(1). Indeed, the title to 18 U.S.C. Sec. 921 is Definitions. Furthermore, Sec. 921(a)(20) begins with the words [t]he term 'crime punishable by imprisonment for a term exceeding one year' does not include, and is followed by two exceptions. Thus, Sec. 921(a)(20) serves to narrow the class of prior convictions down to a smaller class of convictions that may serve as predicate convictions under Sec. 922(g)(1). To treat Sec. 921(a)(20) as a legal definition accords with the approaches taken explicitly by two other circuits, see United States v. Jackson, 57 F.3d 1012, 1016 (11th Cir.1995); Flower, 29 F.3d at 534; United States v. Clark, 993 F.2d 402, 406 (4th Cir.1993), and implicitly by several others, see United States v. Frushon, 10 F.3d 663, 665-66 (9th Cir.1993); Martin v. United States, 989 F.2d 271, 273 (8th Cir.), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 114 S.Ct. 475, 126 L.Ed.2d 426 (1993); United States v. Cassidy, 899 F.2d 543, 545 (6th Cir.1990). 21 We are persuaded by the approach of United States v. Flower. The significance of Sec. 921(a)(20)'s definitional nature is that the trial judge bears the responsibility of determining as a matter of law whether a prior conviction is admissible in a Sec. 922(g)(1) case. Flower, 29 F.3d at 535. Under Bartelho's proposed rule, the government would be required to refute every possibility that criminal defendants have had their prior convictions nullified or their civil rights restored. Rather than require the government to show a negative proposition, we reject Bartelho's interpretation. It is certainly much easier for criminal defendants to raise the issue of whether their prior convictions have been nullified or their civil rights otherwise restored. Id. 1 22 A claim of restoration of civil rights is in the nature of an affirmative defense. As a result, once a prior felony conviction and corresponding loss of civil rights is proven by the government, as with any other factual condition, the presumption is that that condition remains. See Jackson, 57 F.3d at 1016 ([W]here affirmative defenses are created through statutory exceptions, the ultimate burden of persuasion remains with the prosecution, but the defendant has the burden of going forward with sufficient evidence to raise the exception as an issue.) (quoting United States v. Laroche, 723 F.2d 1541, 1543 (11th Cir.), cert. denied, 467 U.S. 1245, 104 S.Ct. 3521, 82 L.Ed.2d 829 (1984)). It is up to the defendant to raise the issue and produce evidence showing that changed circumstances make the original condition inapplicable. See Jackson, 57 F.3d at 1017; Flower, 29 F.3d at 535. Defendant has not done so here. 23 Thus, upon de novo review, see, e.g., United States v. Three Juveniles, 61 F.3d 86, 87 (1st Cir.1995) (reviewing de novo issues of interpretation of federal criminal statute), we find no error of law, since the government was not required to show the validity of his past conviction in order to prove a violation of Sec. 922(g)(1).