United States Third Circuit

Following defendant's conviction for possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, the district court's imposition of a sentence on defendant that included a fifteen-year mandatory minimum for violating the Armed Career Criminal Act (ACCA), is affirmed, where: 1) Pennsylvania’s criminal statute proscribing possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance is a "divisible" statute under Descamps v. United States, 133 S. Ct. 2276 (2013); 2) the trial court's use of the modified categorical approach in determining if defendant's prior conviction under that statute qualified as a predicate offense under the ACCA, was proper; and 3) defendant's previous conviction under that statute for possession with intent to distribute cocaine is a "serious drug offense" and properly served as a predicate offense for the imposition of the fifteen-year minimum sentence under the ACCA.

Appellate Information

• Decided 04/04/2014
• Published 04/04/2014

Judges

• SCIRICA

Court

• United States Third Circuit

Counsel