In U.S. v. Greer, No. 05-11295 (Jan. 10, 2005), the Court (Black, Carnes, Pryor), affirmed a defendant’s conviction, and, on a government cross-appeal, reversed the district court’s decision that notwithstanding the ACCA minimum mandatory sentence of 15 years for anyone who violates 18 U.S.C. § 922(g) after three convictions for a violent felony or a serious drug offense, it could impose a 67-month sentence. The district court had reasoned that post-Apprendi/Booker, it had no authority to find the facts regarding a prior conviction which could support a sentence enhancement.
The Court noted that Almendarez-Torres v. U.S., 523 U.S. 224 (1998) and its progeny in the Eleventh Circuit had held that a district court is authorized to make findings relating to prior convictions, and that these findings did not violate the Sixth Amendment’s jury trial guarantee. The Court held that this holding extended not just to the fact of prior convictions, but to their nature as well, i.e. whether they qualified under § 922(g). The Court therefore vacated the sentence and remanded for resentencing.
