New Orleans, LA- Criminal defense lawyer represented defendant with a two-count federal indictment charging him with possessing a firearm after a felony conviction and possessing a substance containing heroin charges.
Mr. Burris pleaded guilty to a two-count federal indictment charging
him with possessing a firearm after a felony conviction and possessing a
substance containing heroin. Because Mr. Burris had three prior Texas
convictions that the district court considered violent felonies under the
Armed Career Criminal Act, it applied the Act’s three-strike enhancement,
and its corresponding fifteen-year mandatory minimum, to the felon-inpossession count. See 18 U.S.C. § 924(e)(1), (2)(B). We initially affirmed.
But one of Mr. Burris’s convictions was for simple robbery under
Texas Penal Code § 29.02(a)(1). And Burton now makes it clear that simple
robbery is not a violent felony for purposes of applying the ACCA’s
mandatory fifteen-year minimum enhancement because it could be
committed simply by recklessly causing another to suffer injury during a
theft. 141 S. Ct. at 1825; United States v. Ybarra, No. 20-10520, 2021 WL
3276471, at *1 (5th Cir. July 30, 2021).
Outcome: Accordingly, we GRANT appellant’s unopposed motion to vacate the
decision of the district court, VACATE the decision, and REMAND for
resentencing. All other motions are DENIED as moot.