Court Opinion

ID: 9490168
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 13:34:43.567853+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:53:55.936658
License: Public Domain

EVANS, Circuit Judge,
concurring.
I concur in the result reached by the majority, although I agree with a number of the points made by Judge Coffey in his separate opinion. Most importantly, I agree with him that we should overrule United States v. Lee, 22 F.3d 736 (7th Cir.1994), and give our trial judges broad authority to consider all reliable information in deciding whether a prior conviction — without regard to its name — was a “crime of violence.” The goal should be enlightened sentencing proceedings based on factually accurate information. If Shannon, as alleged in the complaint, truly grabbed the young victim, dragged her down a flight of stairs to a basement, threw her to the floor and raped her, he committed a crime of violence and should be treated today in federal court as a person with a vicious past event on his record without regard to the name attached to his state conviction. District judges make factual calls every day, and they should be permitted, at a sentencing hearing, to make a yes-he-did or no-he-didn’t call like the one presented in this case. The logic of a sentencing scheme that forecloses an inquiry of this sort escapes me.