Court Opinion

ID: 9956225
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2024-04-01 16:00:37.839573+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T08:15:14.553113
License: Public Domain

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                                            UNPUBLISHED

                               UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
                                   FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT

                                               No. 18-4907

        UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,

                             Plaintiff – Appellee,

                      v.

        JAMAAL RAY CURTIS,

                             Defendant – Appellant.

        Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina, at
        Raleigh. Malcolm J. Howard, Senior District Judge. (5:17-cr-00011-H-1)

        Argued: September 22, 2023                                        Decided: March 26, 2024

        Before GREGORY and RICHARDSON, Circuit Judges, and Patricia Tolliver GILES,
        United States District Judge for the Eastern District of Virginia, sitting by designation.

        Affirmed by unpublished opinion. District Judge Giles wrote the opinion in which Judge
        Gregory and Judge Richardson joined.

        ARGUED: Christopher S. Edwards, WARD & SMITH, PA, Wilmington, North Carolina,
        for Appellant. David A. Bragdon, OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES ATTORNEY,
        Raleigh, North Carolina, for Appellee. ON BRIEF: Michael F. Easley, Jr., United States
        Attorney, OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES ATTORNEY, Raleigh, North Carolina,
        for Appellee.

        Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit.
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        GILES, District Judge:

               On October 28, 2003, Jamaal Ray Curtis, along with two accomplices, broke into

        three different homes located a few miles apart. In 2004, Curtis pleaded guilty to three

        counts of felonious breaking and entering and was sentenced to a maximum of eleven

        months in state prison. In 2018, Curtis was convicted of being a felon in possession of a

        firearm. Finding that the three October 2003 break-ins constituted a different occasion

        separate from one another, the district court sentenced Curtis to a minimum term of fifteen

        years’ imprisonment under the Armed Career Criminal Act (“ACCA”). For the reasons

        that follow, we affirm the district court’s judgment.

                                                     I.

               In July 2016, after a 2015 drug conviction, Curtis was placed on post-release

        supervision. See J.A. 50–54. As a condition of his supervision, Curtis agreed to abide by

        a curfew, requiring him to be in his father’s home from 7:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. J.A. 58,

        101–02. On the morning of December 13, 2016, as part of a multi-agency operation known

        as “Operation Silent Night,” officers from the North Carolina Department of Public Safety

        (“NCDPS”) and the Oxford, North Carolina Police Department set out to visit Curtis at,

        and conduct a search of, his father’s home. J.A. 150–51. Before arriving at the address,

        Oxford Police Sargent Kevin Dickerson disclosed to the other officers that he had received

        an anonymous tip suggesting that Curtis was living with his girlfriend and dealing drugs

        out of her home. Id. Sargent Dickerson and two NCDPS officers arrived at the girlfriend’s

        house just after 6:30 a.m. J.A. 151–52. After knocking on the door, the officers were given

        permission to enter the home. Id. Once inside, the officers saw Curtis and arrested him,

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        at which point Curtis made an unprotected statement that he was in possession of a firearm.

        Id.

               In January 2017, a federal grand jury indicted Curtis on two federal charges,

        including being a felon in possession of a firearm, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1).

        J.A. 28–29. On January 11, 2018, Curtis pleaded guilty, by way of a written plea

        agreement, to being a felon in possession of a firearm. J.A. 81–84. In the presentence

        investigation report, the U.S. Probation Office recommended that Curtis be sentenced as

        an armed career criminal under the ACCA, 18 U.S.C. § 924(e), because Curtis had three

        breaking-and-entering convictions.     J.A. 327.   The Probation Office, in making its

        recommendation, noted the following:

                     On October 28, 2003, the defendant broke into a dwelling occupied
                     by CLK on Wilson Town Road in Stovall, North Carolina, and stole
                     a 12-gauge shotgun and various other items valued at $3,890. On the
                     same day, he broke into a dwelling occupied by BRW on Highway
                     15N in Stoval and stole a television and other items valued at $800.
                     Finally, the defendant broke into a dwelling occupied by EE on
                     Leaning Oak Road in Oxford, North Carolina, with the intent to
                     commit larceny.

        J.A. 318.

              On December 4, 2018, the district court held Curtis’s sentencing hearing. J.A. 244.

        At the outset of the hearing, the court addressed Curtis’s objections to his armed career

        criminal status. See J.A. 245–47. Relevant to this appeal, Curtis first argued that the

        presence of accomplices in each of his three qualifying convictions made it possible that

        the three crimes coincided with each other and therefore, the Government had failed to

        meet its burden of proving that Curtis committed all three of his predicate offenses.

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        J.A. 196–97. Curtis also argued that because the three breaking-and-entering crimes took

        place on the same day and within miles of each other, they were a part of the same occasion,

        thus making Curtis’s convictions a single ACCA predicate offense, not three. See J.A.

        199–200.

               The district court rejected Curtis’s arguments. Applying this Court’s multi-factor

        analysis for determining whether offenses occur on different occasions, the district court

        found that (1) the three offenses occurred at three separate locations, with two of the homes

        located 1.9 miles apart and the third home located 7.3 miles away; (2) though each offense

        involved a “break-in of a small, unoccupied country store,” 1 the property taken from at

        least two of the locations was different; (3) there were three different victims; and (4) given

        the mileage separating the three locations, Curtis had the opportunity to make a conscious

        decision not to commit the next offense before doing so. J.A. 251–53. Consequently, the

        court concluded that the Government met its burden of showing that the three offenses

        occurred on occasions different from one another, and that the ACCA designation was

        appropriately applied. J.A. 253. With the ACCA enhancement, Curtis faced an advisory

        sentencing guidelines range of 188 to 235 months. J.A. 257. The court subsequently

        sentenced Curtis to a term of 188 months in prison. J.A. 265, 270.

               Curtis timely appealed. This Court held the appeal in abeyance pending the

        Supreme Court’s decision in Wooden v. United States, 595 U.S. 360 (2022). J.A. 14. The

               1
                Although the district court referenced a “store,” the record reflects that the break-
        ins were of people’s homes. See J.A. 222–24.

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        only issue remaining on appeal is whether the district court erred in sentencing Curtis as

        an armed career criminal under the ACCA. 2

                                                      II.

               Under the ACCA, a defendant who has violated 18 U.S.C. § 922(g) is subject to a

        mandatory minimum sentence of fifteen years in prison if he “has three previous

        convictions . . . for a violent felony or a serious drug offense, or both, committed on

        occasions different from one another[.]” 18 U.S.C. § 924(e)(1). We review de novo a

        district court’s legal determination that a defendant committed three predicate offenses on

        different occasions. See United States v. Linney, 819 F.3d 747, 751 (4th Cir. 2016). The

        court’s “factual findings made incident to [its] ultimate ruling” are reviewed for clear error.

        Id. In determining whether a defendant may be sentenced under the ACCA, a court “is

        generally limited to examining the statutory definition, charging document, written plea

        agreement, transcript of plea colloquy, and any explicit factual finding by the trial judge to

        which the defendant assented.” Shepard v. United States, 544 U.S. 13, 16 (2005). The

        burden is on the Government to prove, by a preponderance of the evidence, the elements

               2
                 Curtis initially raised two arguments on appeal: (1) the district court erred in
        denying his motion to suppress the firearm on the grounds that Curtis had been unlawfully
        seized under the Fourth Amendment; and (2) the district court erred in sentencing Curtis
        under the ACCA. Appellant Br. at 1–2. Unless he enters a conditional guilty plea, a
        defendant who pleads guilty waives his right to appeal “all nonjurisdictional defects in the
        proceedings conducted prior to entry of the plea.” United States v. Buster, 26 F.4th 627,
        631 (4th Cir. 2022). Because Curtis pled guilty without entering into a conditional plea,
        he waived his right to appeal the denial of his motion to suppress. See United States v.
        Rodgers, 595 F. App’x. 196, 197 n.1 (4th Cir. 2014) (“Because we conclude that [the
        defendant] did not enter a conditional guilty plea, we do not review the district court’s
        denial of his motion to suppress.”).

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        necessary to support application of the ACCA sentencing enhancement. See United States

        v. Archie, 771 F.3d 217, 223 (4th Cir. 2014).

                                                   III.

               Curtis raises two arguments in support of his claim that the district court erred in

        sentencing him under the ACCA. First, Curtis argues that the presence of accomplices

        during the commission of the underlying crimes giving rise to his three qualifying

        convictions prevents the Government from establishing that the crimes occurred on

        separate occasions. Appellant Br. at 18–21. Second, Curtis argues that the Supreme

        Court’s recent decision in Wooden abrogates this Court’s occasions-clause jurisprudence,

        and under Wooden, the crimes underlying Curtis’s three breaking-and-entering convictions

        occurred on one occasion. See id. at 8, 21–26. We address each argument in turn.

                                                    A.

               Curtis asserts that the Government has failed to meet its burden of proving that he

        is eligible to be sentenced under the ACCA. See Appellant Br. at 17. Central to Curtis’s

        argument is the possibility that the three break-ins at issue happened simultaneously

        because the relevant records—namely, the 2004 plea transcript from Curtis’s state court

        proceedings—reveal that the break-ins occurred on the same day while Curtis was working

        with two accomplices. Id. at 18–19. According to Curtis, this possibility defeats the

        Government’s ability to show that the “first crime ended before [the] second crime began”

        and establish that his qualifying convictions arose on three separate occasions. Id. at 21

        (quoting United States v. Tucker, 603 F.3d 260, 266 (4th Cir. 2010)). We disagree.

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               This Court has recognized that “the presence of accomplices [may] complicate[]

        th[e ACCA] analysis.” United States v. Ellis, No. 20-4057, 2022 WL 2128835, at *2 (4th

        Cir. June 14, 2022) (per curiam). On at least three occasions, this Court has reversed lower

        courts’ decisions to sentence defendants under the ACCA, finding that ambiguity in the

        record created uncertainty as to whether those defendants, and not their accomplices,

        committed the predicate offenses at issue. See, e.g., Tucker, 603 F.3d at 266 (vacating the

        defendant’s sentence under the ACCA because the indictments “indicate[d] that [the

        defendant] acted with an accomplice but provide[d] no information indicating that [the

        defendant] himself participated in the burglary of more than one storage unit”); United

        States v. Span, 789 F.3d 320, 329–30 (4th Cir. 2015) (finding application of the ACCA

        inappropriate where three of the four underlying robberies occurred on the same day, some

        involved the same location, and the defendant acted with an accomplice); Ellis, 2022 WL

        2128835, at *2 (concluding that the district court erred in sentencing the defendant under

        the ACCA because the defendant’s three underlying offenses were committed with three

        co-conspirators and the record did not reveal whether the defendant committed the crimes

        sequentially or simultaneously with the aid of these accomplices). Curtis’s case is easily

        distinguishable from these prior decisions.

               The plea transcript from the 2004 state court proceedings provides that, as a factual

        basis for Curtis’s guilty plea to “three counts of felonious breaking and entering[,]” “the

        State’s evidence would [have] show[n] that” on October 28, 2003, “Mr. Jamaal Ray Curtis,

        along with co-defendants, . . . , did break into [one] home;” then, on the same day, “[Curtis],

        along with co-defendants, broke into [a second] home[;]” and finally “[Curtis], along with

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        his two co-defendants broke into [a third] home” before being apprehended by police. J.A.

        222–24. Despite Curtis’s contentions to the contrary, the plea transcript plainly reads that

        Curtis was an active participant in each break-in regardless of the presence of any

        accomplices.

               Moreover, the record further indicates that Curtis and his co-defendants were

        apprehended together after the break-ins when their vehicle, which contained many of the

        items reported stolen from two of the homes, was pulled over during a traffic stop. J.A.

        223–24. We find no inconsistencies in the record to suggest that the break-ins may have

        occurred simultaneously, rather than taking place one after the other. Accordingly, the

        district court did not err in finding that the Government met its burden of proving that

        Curtis committed each of the three break-ins, which constitute ACCA predicate offenses.

                                                    B.

               Next, Curtis argues that the Supreme Court’s decision in Wooden precludes

        application of the ACCA. Appellant Br. at 21. Curtis’s argument is twofold. First, he

        argues that Wooden abrogates this Court’s occasions-clause jurisprudence. Id. at 8, 18 n.1.

        Curtis then argues that under the Wooden analysis, his three predicate offenses occurred on

        one occasion because the timing, location, and character and relationship of the three

        breaking-and-entering offenses show that the crimes involved a common scheme, and they

        took place over the course of a single afternoon in three locations separated by less than

        ten miles. Id. at 23–24. We first address Curtis’s abrogation argument before assessing

        whether, as a matter of law, the three break-ins underlying Curtis’s qualifying convictions

        were committed on separate occasions.

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                                                      1.

               In Wooden, the Supreme Court rejected an interpretation of the occasions-clause

        that would permit satisfaction of the clause “whenever crimes take place at different

        moments in time.” 595 U.S. at 365. Thus, it abrogated the approach taken by the Fifth,

        Seventh, Eighth, and Eleventh Circuits in favor of a “more holistic inquiry” that considers

        other factors. Id. at 365, 369. Under Wooden’s multi-factored analysis, a court should

        consider timing, location, and “the character and relationship of the offenses” to determine

        whether offenses occurred on occasions different from each other. Id. at 369. Wooden did

        not explicitly state the impact, if any, that the decision had on this Court’s occasions-clause

        jurisprudence. 3 For the reasons explained below, we find that our approach to determining

        whether multiple offenses occurred on the same or different occasions is consistent with

        the Wooden analysis.

               This Court’s occasions-clause multi-factored analysis requires that a district court

        consider the following five factors: “(1) whether the offenses ‘arose in different geographic

        locations’; (2) whether ‘the nature of each offense was substantively different’; (3) whether

        each offense ‘involved different victims’; (4) whether each offense ‘involved different

        criminal objectives’; and (5) whether ‘the defendant had the opportunity, after committing

        the first-in-time offense, to make a conscious and knowing decision to engage in the next-

               3
                 Wooden cited favorably to a First Circuit case, United States v. Stearns, 387 F.3d
        104 (1st Cir. 2004), as an example of a multi-factored approach to the ACCA. Wooden,
        595 U.S. at 365 n.2. Stearns was based, in part, on this Court’s approach in United States
        v. Letterlough, 63 F.3d 332 (4th Cir. 1995). See Stearns, 387 F.3d at 108.

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        in-time offense.’” Linney, 819 F.3d at 751 (citation omitted); see also Letterlough, 63 F.3d

        at 335–36. Thus, we find that the very factors that Wooden listed as key considerations—

        timing, location, and the character and relationship of the offenses, Wooden, 595 U.S. at

        369–70—are factors that are also considered under this Court’s multi-factored analysis.

               First, the location factor is explicitly listed in both Letterlough and Wooden. See

        Letterlough, 63 F.3d at 335 (in determining whether predicate offenses took place on

        different occasions, “courts have asked whether the offenses arose in different geographic

        locations[.]”); Wooden, 595 U.S. at 369 (providing that “[p]roximity of location is []

        important” in evaluating the ACCA’s three-occasions requirement).             Additionally,

        Wooden’s evaluation of the “character and relationship” of the offenses is arguably

        representative of the second and fourth Letterlough factors—consideration of whether the

        nature of each offense is distinct, and whether each offense involved a different criminal

        objective. Letterlough, 63 F.3d at 335–36. In fact, in describing what is meant by

        “character and relationship,” Wooden provided that the factor involves considering whether

        the offenses “share a common scheme or purpose[,]” explaining that “[t]he more similar or

        intertwined the conduct giving rise to the offenses[,]” the more likely they are to compose

        one occasion. Wooden, 595 U.S. at 369. Finally, under both this Court and the Supreme

        Court’s analyses, “timing remains a relevant factor in determining whether offenses were

        committed on different occasions.” United States v. Smith, No. 20-4102, 2022 WL

        2826187, at *2 (4th Cir. July 20, 2022) (per curiam) (concluding that for this reason, “the

        Supreme Court did not reject the last Letterlough factor in Wooden.”).

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               Curtis acknowledges that the multi-factored approach advocated for in Wooden has

        already been adopted by this Court. Appellant Reply at 2. Nevertheless, Curtis argues that

        Wooden’s reasoning and application of the multi-factor test contradicts this Court’s

        occasions-clause jurisprudence. Id. at 4. Curtis is correct that a reading of this Court’s

        prior precedent that would permit application of the ACCA solely because a defendant’s

        predicate offenses are temporally distinct would not square with the Wooden decision. The

        Supreme Court has expressly stated that an occasion may “encompass a number of non-

        simultaneous[,]” “temporally discrete offenses.” Wooden, 595 U.S. at 367. With this in

        mind, we acknowledge that it is plausible that some of our pre-Wooden decisions would

        come out differently today in light of the Supreme Court’s ruling. 4

               However, the possibility that this Court’s multi-factored analysis may have been

        applied differently in some prior cases does not eviscerate the soundness of our analysis or

        its applicability to the case at hand. This is underscored by the fact that under both Wooden

        and this Court’s occasions-clause jurisprudence, an occasion, for the purposes of the

        ACCA, is demarcated by a different criminal event or episode. See Wooden, 595 U.S. at

        367 (defining an occasion to mean “an event or episode[.]”); United States v. Leeson, 453

        F.3d 631, 640 (4th Cir. 2006) (“[F]or purposes of determining the applicability of the

               4
                  For instance, in United States v. Carr, we held that the breaking and entering of
        thirteen storage units at a single storage facility owned by at least ten different individuals
        constituted separate and distinct criminal episodes for ACCA purposes. 592 F.3d 636, 645
        (4th Cir. 2010). Carr is factually indistinguishable from Wooden. In Wooden, the Supreme
        Court held that the breaking and entering of ten different storage units at the same storage
        facility did not constitute separate occasions different from one another. 595 U.S. at 368–
        69. Therefore, if decided today, Carr would have a different result.

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        ACCA, offenses occur on occasions different from one another when each offense ‘arose

        out of a separate and distinct criminal episode.’”) (citation omitted). For these reasons,

        we find that Wooden does not abrogate this Court’s occasions-clause jurisprudence and

        that, under both this Court’s multi-factored analysis and the test established in Wooden,

        Curtis’s three breaking-and-entering convictions arose out of three different occasions.

                                                     2.

               At Curtis’s sentencing hearing, the district court applied the Letterlough factors and

        concluded that Curtis’s predicate offenses—the three break-ins—were committed on

        different occasions. J.A. 251–53. The court did not err in making this determination. The

        record shows that the crimes took place at three different locations, separated by 1.9 and

        7.3 miles, respectively. J.A. 222–23. This fact establishes that the offenses arose in

        different geographic locations, and that Curtis had the time and opportunity to think about

        the next break-in before making the conscious decision to commit the offense.

        Furthermore, because Curtis, along with his co-defendants, broke into three different

        homes, the crimes involved three different victims. Finally, the fact that different types of

        items were taken from the homes undermines the idea that the nature of the crimes was

        similar. 5 Accordingly, under our multi-factored analysis, Curtis’s three predicate offenses

        were committed on different occasions.

               5
                In one home, Curtis and his co-defendants stole a leather jacket; a twelve-gauge
        shotgun, a BB pistol, a digital camera; a computer, and U.S. currency, along with other
        items. In another home, they stole a television, sewing machine, and a microwave. J.A.
        223.

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               Because we find that our multi-factored approach to the ACCA is consistent with

        Wooden, then also, under Wooden, each break-in that Curtis committed constitutes a

        separate occasion. Here, as stated earlier, Curtis was convicted of breaking and entering

        three different homes—in other words, three distinct locations. Likely recognizing that the

        three differing locations cut against his argument that the crimes occurred on one occasion,

        Curtis argues that location is not dispositive in this case. 6 Appellant Reply at 8. Curtis

        instead contends that because his underlying crimes occurred over the course of a single

        afternoon and all involved break-ins into people’s homes, the crimes were a part of a

        common scheme. Appellant Br. at 23. In doing so, Curtis compares the facts of his case

        to a wedding, which the Supreme Court described as a classic example of a single

        “occasion[,]” even though the event takes place over several hours and may span different

        locations. Id.; see also Wooden, 595 U.S. at 367.

               The Court disagrees with the application of this wedding analogy to Curtis’s crimes.

        Unlike the wedding activities that are all designed to celebrate the happy couple, nothing

        in the record establishes a link between the break-ins. This is particularly emphasized by

        the fact that, as noted above, the property stolen from the homes varied greatly and there

        was no link between Curtis’s victims – as opposed to the Wooden victims who all shared

        the same storage company. See J.A. 222–23, 252. Similarly, the varied distances between

        the homes raises doubt as to whether the break-ins had any particular rhyme or reason to

               6
                 Curtis appears to ignore the fact that, in Wooden, the Supreme Court identified
        location as a single factor that, in many cases, may “decisively differentiate occasions.”
        Wooden, 595 U.S. at 369–70.

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        them at all. That the offenses all involved break-ins into homes is not, in and of itself,

        enough to constitute a common scheme or purpose.

               Finally, there is the issue of timing. The Supreme Court explained that while

        “[o]ffenses committed close in time” will often constitute one occasion, “offenses

        separated by substantial gaps in time or significant intervening events” will not. Wooden,

        595 U.S. at 369. Curtis argues that because the record does not provide the time that each

        break-in occurred (other than providing that the crimes took place on the same afternoon),

        the Court should find that the three predicate offenses were part of the same occasion. See

        Appellant Br. at 21, 23–24.

               We are unpersuaded by Curtis’s argument that the record’s failure to illuminate a

        specific time at which Curtis committed each break-in leans in favor of finding that the

        break-ins were a part of one occasion—especially when the weight of the other two

        Wooden factors leads us to conclude that each of Curtis’s predicate offenses occurred on

        different occasions. 7 As stated, the offenses occurred some miles apart from each other,

               7
                 Curtis also asserts that, considering the ACCA’s history and purpose, he is not the
        type of “‘revolving door’ felon[]” that the Wooden majority found to be the statute’s target.
        Appellant Br. at 21–22 (quoting Wooden, 595 U.S. at 375). While the Wooden majority
        stated that the ACCA is meant to target “a particular subset of offenders”—“‘revolving
        door’ felons”—who commit a number of serious crimes “as their means of livelihood[,]”
        the Court explained that the ACCA’s history and purpose should only be considered when
        courts are faced with “hard cases” in which one or more of the factors do not decisively
        differentiate one occasion from another. 595 U.S. at 370, 375 (first quoting Begay v. United
        States, 553 U.S. 137, 147 (2008); then quoting Taylor v. United States, 495 U.S. 575, 587
        (1990)). For the reasons explained above, we find that Curtis’s case is not one of these
        “hard cases.” Rather, a “straightforward and intuitive” application of the Wooden factors
        reveals that Curtis’s predicate offenses were committed on different occasions. Id. at 369.

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        involved three distinct locations, and there is no indication that the crimes shared a similar

        criminal objective or were a part of a common scheme or purpose. Accordingly, the district

        court did not err in sentencing Curtis as an armed career criminal under the ACCA.

                                                     IV.

               For the reasons set forth in this opinion, we affirm the judgment of the district court.

                                                                                         AFFIRMED

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