This bill expands the criminal offenses that qualify as prior convictions for the purpose of enhanced sentencing under the Armed Career Criminal Act (ACCA).
Currently, the ACCA imposes a 15-year mandatory minimum prison term on a defendant who possesses, receives, or transports a firearm as a prohibited person (e.g., felon) and has three or more prior convictions for a serious drug offense or violent felony (or both) committed on separate occasions.
The term serious drug offense means a federal or state offense with a statutory maximum prison term of 10 years or more. A state offense must involve the manufacture, distribution, or possession of a controlled substance as defined in the Controlled Substances Act.
The term violent felony means any crime punishable by a prison term of more than one year that (1) has as an element the use, attempted use, or threatened use of physical force; or (2) is burglary, arson, or extortion, or involves explosives.
This bill replaces serious drug offense and violent felony with a new category of qualifying prior offense: serious felony convictions. The term serious felony conviction means (1) any conviction that, at the time of sentencing, was a felony offense punishable by a statutory maximum prison term of 10 years or more; or (2) any group of convictions imposed in the same proceeding or in consolidated proceedings with a total prison term of 10 years of more, regardless of how many years the defendant served.
