United States v. Smith

In 2013, Smith pleaded guilty to three federal counts stemming from his armed robbery of a Sevierville, Tennessee pharmacy. He was sentenced to 262 months in prison, the bottom of the Guidelines range, as a career offender based in part on his prior North Carolina state conviction for common-law robbery. He also had a South Carolina drug-trafficking conviction. A defendant qualifies as a career offender if he was at least 18 years old at the time of the instant offense; the instant offense of conviction is a felony that is either a crime of violence or a controlled substance offense; and the defendant has at least two prior felony convictions of either a crime of violence or a controlled substance offense. The Sixth Circuit affirmed. The Supreme Court subsequently vacated the sentence in light of its 2015 "Johnson" decision, which cast the constitutionality of the Guidelines’ residual clause into doubt. On remand, the Sixth Circuit again held that North Carolina common-law robbery does qualify as a “crime of violence” within the meaning of U.S.S.G. 4B1.1(a). The court cited the Supreme Court’s 2017 decision, Beckles v. United States, clarifying that the Guidelines’ residual clause remains valid after Johnson. View "United States v. Smith" on Justia Law