Opinion ID: 3062855
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: ACCA Classification

Text: Brown argues that he should not have been classified as an armed career criminal because burglary of an unoccupied structure should not qualify as a violent felony under 18 U.S.C. § 924(e)(1). He concedes that the law would need to “evolve[] in his favor” for this argument to succeed. He points out that the Florida burglary statute under which he was convicted expressly “rules out any violence to a person.” We consider de novo whether a particular conviction is a “violent felony” for purposes of the ACCA. United States v. Wilkerson, 286 F.3d 1324, 1325 (11th Cir. 2002). Under the ACCA, a person who violates 18 U.S.C. § 922(g) and has three previous convictions for a “violent felony,” a serious drug offense, or both, is 3 an armed career criminal and subject to imprisonment for a period of not less than 15 years. 18 U.S.C. § 924(e)(1). The ACCA defines a violent felony as any crime punishable by imprisonment for a term exceeding one year that: (i) has as an element the use, attempted use, or threatened use of physical force against the person of another; or (ii) is burglary, arson, or extortion, involves use of explosives, or otherwise involves conduct that presents a serious potential risk of physical injury to another[.] Id. § 924(e)(2)(B). To determine whether a crime constitutes a violent felony, a court must follow a categorical approach in which it looks “only to the statutory definitions of the prior offenses, and not to the particular facts underlying those convictions.” Taylor v. United States, 495 U.S. 575, 600 (1990). It should be noted at the outset that, although Brown refers to the felony at issue as “burglary of an unoccupied structure,” the PSI lists that particular case as a conviction for “burglary of a structure/conveyance.” That conviction was the only predicate conviction that Brown attempted to challenge. Regardless of whether Brown’s 1988 burglary conviction constitutes a predicate felony under the ACCA, the district court did not err in sentencing Brown as an armed career criminal. Brown had four prior violent felony convictions, and the ACCA only requires that a defendant have three prior violent 4 felonies to be sentenced as an armed career criminal. See 18 U.S.C. § 924(e). On appeal, Brown does not dispute that the other three convictions are predicate felonies. Thus, the district court properly sentenced him as an armed career criminal.