The Armed Career Criminal Act of 1984 (ACCA) is a
United States
The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
federal law that provides sentence enhancements for felons who commit crimes with firearms if they are convicted of certain crimes
three or more times.
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...
Senator
Arlen Specter
Arlen Specter (February 12, 1930 – October 14, 2012) was an American lawyer, author and politician who served as a United States Senator from Pennsylvania from 1981 to 2011. Specter was a Democrat from 1951 to 1965, then a Republican fr ...
was a key proponent for the legislation.
If a felon has three or more prior convictions for offenses that are "violent felony" offenses or "serious drug offenses," the Act provides a minimum sentence of fifteen years imprisonment, instead of the ten-year maximum prescribed under the
Gun Control Act. The Act provides for an implied maximum sentence of life imprisonment.
History of ACCA
The ACCA has been through numerous revisions in Congress and has evolved considerably since its passage in 1984.
The ACCA was originally included with the
Comprehensive Crime Control Act of 1984 sponsored by the Reagan Administration and enhanced the penalties for possession of firearms under the Gun Control Act for felons who had been convicted three times of
robbery
Robbery is the crime of taking or attempting to take anything of value by force, threat of force, or use of fear. According to common law, robbery is defined as taking the property of another, with the intent to permanently deprive the person o ...
or
burglary
Burglary, also called breaking and entering (B&E) or housebreaking, is a property crime involving the illegal entry into a building or other area without permission, typically with the intention of committing a further criminal offence. Usually ...
.
Cases involving the ACCA
The definition of "violent felony" in ACCA has been interpreted by the Supreme Court in ''
Begay v. United States'' and ''
Chambers v. United States'', which determined that neither drunk driving nor failure to report for incarceration were considered violent felonies, respectively. The Supreme Court ruled in ''
Stokeling v. United States'' (Docket 17-5554) in January 2019 that criminal acts like pick pocketing and purse snatching should only be considered violent felonies if the perpetrator employed more force than is necessary to remove the property from that person. The Government further stated that, “slight offensive touching” would not satisfy the Florida robbery statute. Therefore, not all incidents of pick pocketing or snatching are automatically considered robbery offenses under the Florida statute which includes provisions for lesser theft crimes.
The definition of a "serious" drug crime was considered and further defined by the Supreme Court in ''
United States v. Rodriquez''. In ''
Taylor v. United States'', the Court was called upon to determine the meaning of the word "burglary" in ACCA and, specifically, whether a conviction in Missouri for second-degree burglary was, in fact, a predicate conviction. The court concluded that an offense constitutes "burglary" under 924(e) if, regardless of its exact definition or label, it has the basic elements of burglary.
On June 26, 2015, the
Supreme Court of the United States
The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all Federal tribunals in the United States, U.S. federal court cases, and over Stat ...
ruled in ''
Johnson v. United States'' that part of the ACCA is unconstitutional.
The Court struck down a "catchall phrase" (also known as a residual clause) in the ACCA that was described as "vague" in outlining acts that could result in a harsher sentence. "Under the Armed Career Criminal Act of 1984, a defendant convicted of being a felon in possession of a firearm faces more severe punishment if he has three or more previous convictions for a 'violent felony,' a term defined to include any felony that 'involves conduct that presents a serious potential risk of physical injury to another.' 18 U. S. C. §924(e)(2)(B). We must decide whether this part of the definition of a violent felony survives the Constitution’s prohibition of vague criminal laws...We hold that imposing an increased sentence under the residual clause of the Armed Career Criminal Act violates the Constitution’s guarantee of due process. Our contrary holdings in James and Sykes are overruled. Today’s decision does not call into question application of the Act to the four enumerated offenses, or the remainder of the Act’s definition of a violent felony."
In ''
Borden v. United States'' (2021), the Supreme Court ruled that previous crimes with a ''
mens rea
In criminal law, (; Law Latin for "guilty mind") is the mental state of a defendant who is accused of committing a crime. In common law jurisdictions, most crimes require proof both of ''mens rea'' and '' actus reus'' ("guilty act") before th ...
'' of recklessness do not qualify as violent felonies for the purposes of the ACCA.
In ''
Wooden v. United States'' (2022), the Supreme Court ruled that for purposes of considering the enhanced sentences, multiple convictions arising from crimes committed at the same "occasion" are considered to be a single criminal episode toward the three-strikes rule.
Footnotes
External links
Johnson v. United States (
SCOTUSblog
''SCOTUSblog'' is a law blog written by lawyers, legal scholars, and law students about the Supreme Court of the United States (sometimes abbreviation, abbreviated "SCOTUS"). Formerly sponsored by Bloomberg Law and now owned by ''The Dispatch'' ...
)
{{Presidency of Ronald Reagan
1984 in American law
United States federal criminal legislation
United States sentencing law
United States firearms law