Opinion ID: 76968
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The petition and judgment of a juvenile adjudication may be considered

Text: 11 In order to determine whether Burge's juvenile offense (burglary) was committed while he was carrying a firearm and, therefore, whether his juvenile adjudication could count as a conviction for purposes of the ACCA, the district court considered the petition for a declaration of juvenile delinquency and the juvenile judgment of adjudication. Burge does not dispute the fact of the underlying adjudication, that is, that he was adjudicated delinquent for violating Ala.Code § 13A-7-5; rather, Burge argues that the juvenile adjudication cannot be considered because the statute can be violated in one of three ways, and if the court only considers the statute and the fact of adjudication, it is unclear whether he committed the offense while carrying a firearm. 2 12 The district court's consideration of the petition and judgment to resolve the ambiguity was not error. When a court considers the application of a sentencing enhancement it should generally follow a categorical approach and consider only the fact of conviction and the statutory definition of the prior offense. United States v. Breitweiser, 357 F.3d 1249, 1254 (11th Cir.2004) (quotation and citation omitted); accord Taylor v. United States, 495 U.S. 575, 602, 110 S.Ct. 2143, 2160, 109 L.Ed.2d 607 (1990) (holding that 18 U.S.C. § 924(e) generally requires the trial court to look only to the fact of conviction and the statutory definition of the prior offense). The district court may, however, look beyond the conviction when sentence enhancements are based on a defendant's prior conduct or crime. Breitweiser, 357 F.3d at 1254. Under such circumstances, the district court may look behind the judgment of conviction when it is impossible to determine from the face of the judgment or statute whether the prior crime satisfies the enhancement statute. Id. at 1255. The district court's review is limited to the terms of the charging document, the terms of a plea agreement or transcript of colloquy between judge and defendant in which the factual basis for the plea was confirmed by the defendant, or to some comparable judicial record of this information. Shepard v. United States, ___ U.S. ___, 125 S.Ct. 1254, 1263, 161 L.Ed.2d 205 (2005). Here, consistent with Breitweiser and Shepard, the district court looked beyond the face of the statute to the petition and judgment in order to determine that Burge was adjudicated delinquent for committing first degree burglary while carrying a firearm and, therefore, to determine that his juvenile adjudication satisfied the ACCA.