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Defendant experiences another reversal of ACCA fortunes via Fourth Circuit's reversal

By Douglas A. Berman

The Fourth Circuit has an interesting ruling today in US v. Pettiford, No. 09-4119 (4th Cir. June 3, 2010) (available here), which reverses a district court's decision to reduce an ACCA sentence by granting relief in a 2255 action.  Here is how the panel ruling in Pettiford gets started: Appellee Antoine Jerome Pettiford pleaded guilty to one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 922(g), and received an enhanced sentence of 188 months? imprisonment, in part because he had five prior convictions which qualified him as a career criminal under the provisions of the Armed Career Criminal Act (the "ACCA"), 18 U.S.C. § 924(e).   Two of the five state court convictions were subsequently vacated, and Pettiford brought a petition under 28 U...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on June 03, 2010 (boomark / email).