United States v. Brumbach

In 2009, Brumbach was arrested for pointing a gun at a man and was charged as a felon in possession of a firearm, 18 U.S.C. 922(g)(1). He pleaded guilty and agreed that because he had at least three previous convictions for violent felonies and possessed a gun, he qualified as an armed career criminal under the Armed Career Criminal Act (ACCA), 18 U.S.C. 924(e)(1). The PSR explained that Brumbach had 12 prior convictions for aggravated burglary under Tennessee law. The court imposed the mandatory minimum sentence of 180 months’ imprisonment. After the Supreme Court struck down ACCA's residual clause in "Johnson" (2015), Brumbach filed a 28 U.S.C. 2255 motion to vacate or correct his sentence, arguing that his convictions for aggravated burglary could no longer count as violent felonies under the ACCA. In another case, Stitt, the Sixth Circuit held that a conviction under Tennessee’s aggravated burglary statute did not constitute a violent felony under the ACCA. The district court granted Brumbach’s habeas petition and imposed a new sentence of time served, which equated to 105 months in prison. In December 2018, the Supreme Court reversed Stitt, finding that the language of the Tennessee statute falls within the scope of generic burglary’s definition. The Sixth Circuit then reversed the grant of habeas relief and reinstated Brumbach’s original sentence. View "United States v. Brumbach" on Justia Law