United States Ninth Circuit

Defendant's sentence, which included an enhancement on the ground that a prior felony conviction under 18 U.S.C. section 111(a) for assaulting a federal officer qualifies as a crime of violence, is vacated and remanded for resentencing, where: 1) a section 111(a) felony is not categorically a crime of violence because it does not match any of the U.S.S.G.'s specifically enumerated offenses and does not require proof, as a necessary element, that the defendant used, attempted to use, or threatened to use physical force; 2) even if section 111(a) is viewed as a divisible statute setting out elements of the offense in the alternative, the modified categorical approach is inapplicable because none of the alternatives requires proof of the type of violent physical force mandated under the Sentencing Guidelines' definition of a crime of violence.

Appellate Information

• Decided 04/07/2014
• Published 04/07/2014

Judges

• WATFORD

Court

• United States Ninth Circuit

Counsel