Opinion ID: 2641524
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Recidivism Enhancements and the ACCA

Text: As noted by the district court, we have already rejected Defendant’s first argument. In United States v. Kearney, 675 F.3d 571 (6th Cir. 2012), the defendant’s domestic violence convictions under Michigan law were originally misdemeanors, carrying a maximum possible prison term of only 93 days, that were enhanced to felonies with a two-year maximum sentence due to a recidivism statute under Michigan law. Id. at 573. The defendant in Kearney similarly argued that the felony enhancements should be disregarded for purposes of the ACCA and that those convictions should be considered as though he was sentenced only on the base offense conduct, i.e., the misdemeanor offense. Id. We relied on United States v. Rodriquez, 553 U.S. 377 (2008), to hold that Congress likely took into consideration pre-existing sentencing schemes such as state recidivism statutes when it drafted the ACCA and, thus, it defined the ACCA predicate offenses with reference 5 No. 12-4346 to such enhancements. Kearney, 675 F.3d at 576-77. Although Rodriquez held that felony enhancements that applied to drug offenses under state recidivism statutes were properly considered when assessing whether such offenses were “serious drug offenses” under the ACCA, we held in Kearney that Rodriquez nonetheless guided our ruling because the ACCA’s violent felony provision closely tracked the language of the serious drug offense provision. See id. Defendant’s reliance on the Supreme Court’s decision in Johnson v. United States, 559 U.S. 133 (2010), to assert that Kearney was wrongly decided is also without merit. Johnson cautions courts not to equate the common law meaning of “physical force,” which includes mere touching, with the ACCA’s meaning of “physical force” to define a violent felony. See Johnson, 559 U.S. at 141-42. However, Johnson did not hold that conduct which defines a misdemeanor offense could not rise to the level of “physical force” as defined under the ACCA if such an offense is enhanced to a felony. As we explained in Kearney, close adherence to Supreme Court precedent defining violent felonies under the ACCA should prevent courts from improperly counting convictions as ACCA predicate offenses. Kearney, 675 F.3d at 578. What the Johnson Court left undecided—whether felonies resulting from recidivism statutes should qualify under the ACCA—this Court in Kearney expressly answered in the affirmative, and this panel is bound by that decision. See, e.g., United States v. Simpson, 520 F.3d 531, 540-41 (6th Cir. 2008).