United States Second Circuit

Sentence for possessing a handgun and ammunition is vacated and remanded where: 1) under plain terms of the Armed Career Criminal Act (ACCA), the court must look to the current sentencing laws of the state to determine whether the drug offense is "serious"; and 2) under current state law, the maximum sentence prescribed for these offenses is less than ten years.

Appellate Information

• Decided 08/15/2008
• Published 08/15/2008

Judges

• POOLER, Circuit Judge:, Before CARDAMONE and POOLER, Circuit Judges, and KEENAN, District Judge.

Court

• United States Second Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellees:
  
• Michael A. Marinaccio, Culleton, Marinaccio & Foglia (Howard R. Birnbach, of counsel), White Plains, NY, for Defendant-Appellant Joel Darden., John M. Burke, Brooklyn, NY, for Defendant-Appellee Ralph Archer., Lloyd Epstein, Epstein & Weil, New York, NY, for Defendant-Appellee Pedro Villegas., Steven M. Statsinger, Federal Defenders of New York, Inc., Appeals Bureau, New York, NY, for Defendant-Appellee-Cross-Appellant Andre Williams., Arvin Moyne, Assistant United States Attorney (Peter A. Norling, Evan C. Williams, James P. Loonam, Elizabeth A. Latif, and Diane Gujarati, Assistant United States Attorneys, on the briefs) for Roslynn R. Mauskopf, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, and for Michael J. Garcia, United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, New York, NY, for Appellee in No. 06-4567, for Appellants in Nos. 07-0025, 06-4821, and for Appellant-Cross-Appellee in Nos. 07-2664, 07-2869.