Justia U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals Opinion Summaries

Defendant was convicted of possession of a firearm by a felon in violation of 18 U.S.C. Section 922(g)(1). The district court sentenced Defendant to 240 months imprisonment, applying the sentencing enhancement provided by the Armed Career Criminal Act (“ACCA”), after finding that Defendant had three qualifying predicate convictions for a “serious drug offense” or “violent felony.” But after the Supreme Court decided Johnson v. United States, striking down the “residual clause” of ACCA’s violent-felony definition as unconstitutional, 576 U.S. 591, 606 (2015), Defendant filed a Section 2255 motion to vacate his ACCA sentence. He argued that Maryland first-degree assault—which formed the basis for two of his ACCA predicate offenses—was not a “violent felony” under ACCA. The district court denied Defendant’s motion, and he appealed.   The Fourth Circuit reversed the district court’s denial of Defendant’s Section 2255 motion, vacated Defendant’s ACCA sentence. The court explained that it is quite plain from Maryland’s statutory scheme and from the case law interpreting it, that reckless conduct is included. Therefore, Defendant’s inability to point to a specific case is not dispositive. Rather, the terms of the statute and the decisions of Maryland courts show that a Maryland prosecutor could bring charges for first-degree assault against a defendant for recklessly committing an assault with a firearm. The court concluded that the Maryland first-degree-assault statute sets out an indivisible offense and that one of the modalities of that offense—assault with a firearm—can be committed with a mens rea of recklessness. View "US v. Garfield Redd" on Justia Law

Defendant pled guilty to possessing a firearm as a convicted felon, in violation of 18 U.S.C. Sections 922(g)(1) and 924(a)(2). At the time of his offense, Defendant had numerous prior felony convictions. The Government requested an enhanced sentence under ACCA. “ACCA mandates a 15-year minimum sentence for a defendant convicted of a firearms offense who has three or more prior convictions for either a ‘serious drug offense’ or a ‘violent felony.’” The Government argued that two of Defendant’s prior convictions qualified as serious drug offenses, which he does not dispute, and that his 2017 conviction for aggravated assault in violation of Tennessee Code Section 39-13-102 qualified as a violent felony. The district court agreed, overruling Defendant’s objection, and sentenced him to 210 months in prison. The only issue Defendant raised on appeal is whether his Tennessee conviction for aggravated assault qualifies as a violent felony.   The Fourth Circuit affirmed Defendant’s sentence. The court concluded that Defendant’s Tennessee conviction for aggravated assault is a violent felony within the meaning of the ACCA. Defendant argued that aggravated assault cannot be a violent felony because the second element of the crime—simple assault—requires only de minimis force. While it is true that “de minimis physical force, such as mere offensive touching, is insufficient to trigger the ACCA’s force clause,” the court explained that Defendant overlooks the third, aggravating element of the offense. Each of the aggravating circumstances listed in the statute involves the use, attempted use, or threatened use of violent physical force. View "US v. Bryan Ogle" on Justia Law

A federal grand jury indicted Defendant for possessing a firearm while being an unlawful user of a controlled substance. Defendant moved to suppress the firearm and other physical evidence, arguing that the officers lacked reasonable suspicion for the stop. After the district court denied his motion, Defendant entered a conditional guilty plea that preserved his right to appeal the suppression ruling.   The Fourth Circuit vacated Defendant’s conviction and remanded for further proceedings. The court held that the officers lacked reasonable suspicion of criminal activity when they first detained Defendant. The court explained that in considering the totality of the circumstances known to the officers when they stopped Defendant, it concludes the officers did not have objectively reasonable suspicion that Defendant was, or had been, engaged in theft. The court wrote that when the officers stopped Defendant, they knew he was a man with a weighed-down sweatshirt pocket who had walked through a residential neighborhood past an occasionally unoccupied home next to a commercial area in broad daylight and who had behaved evasively when a neighborhood resident watched and followed him. These circumstances, without more, do not give rise to reasonable suspicion of theft. As such, the court held that at bottom, the totality of the circumstances does not support a reasonable, articulable suspicion that Defendant had engaged, or was about to engage, in theft. View "US v. Daniel Critchfield" on Justia Law

Petitioner, a citizen of the Republic of Lithuania, challenged the district court’s denial of his request for a preliminary injunction (the “Injunction Denial”). Petitioner sought— in connection with his petition for habeas corpus relief under 28 U.S.C. Section 2241 — to prevent the defendant government officials from carrying out his extradition to Lithuania. The district court denied Petitioner’s request for injunctive relief, deeming him unlikely to succeed on the merits of his claim that his extradition to Lithuania would contravene the extradition treaty between that country and the United States. More specifically, Petitioner maintained that Lithuania’s 2015 extradition request fails to comply with the treaty’s mandate that Lithuania produce what is called “the charging document” (the “charging document contention”). The Injunction Denial ruled, however, that the documents produced by Lithuania comply with the extradition treaty, and that Petitioner is therefore not entitled to preliminary injunctive relief.   The Fourth Circuit reversed. The court explained that it is satisfied that Petitioner is likely to succeed on the merits of his claim that Lithuania’s 2015 extradition request does not satisfy the charging document mandate of the extradition treaty. The court wrote that Petitioner has demonstrated that Lithuania’s 2015 extradition request to return him to that country does not satisfy the Treaty’s requirements. And the public’s interest in the Secretary of State recognizing and fulfilling Treaty obligations outweighs any detrimental impact that the denial of an improper extradition request could have. View "Darius Vitkus v. Antony Blinken" on Justia Law

A South Carolina jury convicted Petitioner of voluntary manslaughter concerning the death of his girlfriend. Almost 20 years later—following three rounds of collateral litigation in state court and one 28 U.S.C. Section 2254 habeas petition in federal court—Petitioner sought permission to file a second Section 2254 petition. In that application, Petitioner claims he now remembers that his girlfriend died by suicide. According to Petitioner, his memory was repressed at the time of his trial and his regained memory satisfies the rigorous newly discovered evidence requirements of 28 U.S.C. Section 2244(b)(2)(B), allowing him to file a second habeas petition.     The Fourth Circuit denied the petition. The court explained that one of those requirements is that Petitioner demonstrate, by clear and convincing evidence, that no reasonable factfinder, considering his alleged regained memory with the rest of the evidence, would find Petitioner guilty of manslaughter. Because Petitioner failed to meet this burden, the court denied his application to file a successive Section 2254 habeas petition View "In re: Weldon Stewart, Jr." on Justia Law

Defendant pled guilty without a plea agreement to possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. At issue in this appeal is the district court’s application of two enhancements to Defendant’s Sentencing Guidelines offense level. First, the court applied a four-level enhancement for possession of a firearm in connection with another felony offense, specifically felony possession of drugs. Second, the court applied a six-level enhancement for the knowing creation of a substantial risk of serious bodily injury to a law enforcement officer.   The Fifth Circuit affirmed the application of the six-level enhancement. As to the four-level enhancement, because the court made no findings connecting Defendant’s possession of a firearm to his felony drug possession, the court vacated Defendant’s sentence and remanded for resentencing. The court reasoned that battery is a general intent crime that requires only the intentional performance of the unlawful act. With these principles in mind, the court concluded the evidence on this record establishes that Defendant’s conduct encompassed the requisite intent to satisfy Section 3A1.2(c)(1)’s assault requirement where Defendant did not simply throw one reflexive punch at Jones but threw repeated punches to his head and arms. Further, the court explained that without deciding whether the application of Section 2K2.1(b)(6)(B) is supported under the facts of the present case, the court restated that the district court must first evaluate whether evidence exists to support a finding that Defendant’s possession of the gun facilitated or had the potential to facilitate his possession of drugs. View "US v. Patrick Mitchell" on Justia Law

On July 30, 2014, a jury convicted Defendant on seven counts, including two counts of possessing a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime in violation of 18 U.S.C. Section 924(c). At the time of Defendant’s sentencing, his two Section 924(c) convictions carried a five- and twenty-five-year mandatory minimum sentence, respectively. The district court thus sentenced Defendant to thirty years in prison for his Section 924(c) convictions and, together with his other five convictions, to fifty-seven years’ imprisonment total. In July 2020, Defendant moved for compassionate release pursuant to 18 U.S.C. Section 3582(c)(1)(A). Defendant primarily argued that his release was warranted because he was at risk of serious illness from COVID-19 and because, under the First Step Act’s amendment to Section 924(c) sentencing, he would only be subject to a combined ten-year mandatory minimum for his two Section 924(c) convictions if sentenced today. The district court twice denied Defendant’s motion, each time without addressing the disparity between his Section 924(c) sentence and the much shorter mandatory minimums the First Step Act now prescribes.   The Fourth Circuit reversed and remanded. The court held that the district court abused its discretion by denying Defendant’s motion because his disparate sentence creates an “extraordinary and compelling reason” for his early release, and the Section 3553(a) sentencing factors overwhelmingly favor a sentence reduction. The court explained that because Defendant was subject to a mandatory minimum sentence that is twenty years longer than it would be if he were sentenced today for the same conduct, a sentence reduction is necessary to mitigate the gross disparity between Brown and similarly situated defendants. View "US v. Kelvin Brown" on Justia Law

In November 2003, Petitioner shot and killed his estranged wife in the front seat of her car while their four-year-old son sat in the back. As part of the same incident, Petitioner also shot and killed his wife’s boyfriend. Petitioner was charged with capital murder, among other charges. The trial court rejected Petitioner’s insanity defense but cited his “severe mental illness” as a mitigating factor in declining to impose the death penalty. Petitioner subsequently attempted to collaterally attack his 2007 convictions and sentence in state court. After his state habeas petitions were dismissed, Petitioner sought habeas relief in federal court. The district court dismissed Petitioner’s 2013 federal habeas petition as untimely. Petitioner moved for reconsideration of the petition’s dismissal pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 60(b) on the ground that his “multiple mental health disabilities . . . had prevented him from effectively petitioning the court for habeas relief.” The district court dismissed Petitioner’s Rule 60(b) motion, and this appeal followed.   The Fourth Circuit reversed the district court’s order denying Petitioner’s Rule 60(b) motion and remand the case to the district court. The court reaffirmed that Petitioner’s Rule 60(b) motion was timely filed and found that he is entitled to an evidentiary hearing on whether his mental illness during the relevant period entitled him to relief under Rule 60(b)(6) and equitable tolling of the statute of limitations governing his habeas petition. The court explained that Petitioner suffers from a serious mental illness. He has sufficiently alleged and provided evidence supporting the severity and continuing nature of his mental illness to at least justify an inquiry into whether and for how long his illness may have prevented him from filing his habeas petition. View "Berman Justus, Jr. v. Harold Clarke" on Justia Law

Following a jury trial, Defendant was convicted—and issued three concurrent life sentences—for conspiracy to commit murder for hire resulting in death and aiding and abetting carjacking resulting in death, and one count of aiding and abetting murder with a firearm in relation to a crime of violence. The first two convictions served as the predicate offenses for Defendant’s third conviction. Defendant now appealed the district court’s denial of his 28 U.S.C. Section 2255 motion to vacate his conviction. He argued that following the Supreme Court’s decisions in United States v. Davis, 139 S. Ct. 2319 (2019), and United States v. Taylor, 142 S. Ct. 2015 (2022), his predicate offenses no longer qualify as crimes of violence under 18 U.S.C. Section 924(c)(3).   The Fourth Circuit affirmed. The court concluded that because aiding and abetting carjacking resulting in death remains a valid predicate offense under Section 924(c)(3)(A), Defendant’s 924(j) conviction must stand. The court wrote that that predicate, alone, is sufficient to support his Section 924(j) conviction. Moreover, the court concluded that post-Davis and Taylor, aiding and abetting carjacking resulting in death remains a crime of violence under either Sections 924(c)(3)(A)’s force or elements clause. Due to this, the court wrote, it need not reach the validity of Defendant’s conspiracy to commit murder for hire resulting in death predicate, and the court held that his Section 924(j) conviction stands irrespective of the ambiguity in the general verdict form. View "US v. Michael Draven" on Justia Law

Defendant was convicted of conspiracy to commit murder for hire resulting in death, aiding and abetting carjacking resulting in death, and aiding and abetting murder with a firearm in relation to a crime of violence. The first two convictions served as the predicate offenses for Defendant's third conviction.Defendant filed a motion to vacate, arguing that following the Supreme Court’s decisions in United States v. Davis, 139 S. Ct. 2319 (2019), and United States v. Taylor, 142 S. Ct. 2015 (2022), his predicate offenses no longer qualify as crimes of violence.The Fourth Circuit affirmed, finding that aiding and abetting carjacking resulting in death remains a valid predicate offense under 18 USC 924(c)(3)(A). View "US v. Michael Draven" on Justia Law