Bobby Jo Jenkins: Florida guilty plea with adjudication withheld not a prior conviction

In U.S. v. Clarke and Bobby Jo Jenkins, No. 13-15874 (May 11, 2016), the Court, overruling its prior decision in U.S. v. Orellanes, after obtaining an answer from the Florida Supreme Court to a certified question, held that a Florida guilty plea for a felony with adjudication withheld is not treated as a conviction for purposes of Fla. Stat. § 790.23(1)(a). “Florida’s highest court has plainly told us that our interpretation of Florida law . . . was wrong.” The Court therefore vacated Jenkins’s § 922(g) conviction for being a felon in possession of a firearm.