United States v. Kahoe

902 F. Supp. 684, 1995 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 16290, 1995 WL 646051
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Virginia
DecidedNovember 1, 1995
DocketCrim. No. 95-396-A
StatusPublished

This text of 902 F. Supp. 684 (United States v. Kahoe) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Virginia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Kahoe, 902 F. Supp. 684, 1995 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 16290, 1995 WL 646051 (E.D. Va. 1995).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION

CACHERIS, Chief Judge.

The issue before the Court is whether a plea of guilty, accepted and adjudicated by a federal district court judge, prior to sentencing, constitutes a conviction supporting a charge of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon under federal law. For the reasons that follow, this Court holds that Defendant Joseph Osborne Kahoe’s plea of guilty to a violation of 18 U.S.C. § 924(c), given in and accepted by the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, prior to sentencing, constitutes a federal conviction supporting a charge of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1).

I. FINDINGS OF FACT

On January 1, 1994, Joseph Osborne Ka-hoe (“Kahoe”) was arrested in Washington, D.C., and charged with narcotics and firearms offenses. On January 27, 1994, as a result of that arrest, Kahoe was indicted on narcotics and firearms offenses in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. On March 16,1994, Kahoe entered a plea of guilty to Count Two of the indictment, that is using and carrying a firearm in relation to a drug trafficking crime in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 924(c). On that same date, March 16, 1994, in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, the Honorable Stanley Sporkin, District Judge, accepted Kahoe’s plea and adjudged him guilty. On February 6, 1995, Judge Sporkin sentenced Kahoe to two years’ imprisonment.

In the instant case, Kahoe is charged in Counts Three and Four of a pending indictment with possessing a firearm and ammunition after having been convicted of a crime punishable by imprisonment for a term exceeding one (1) year, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1). The instant offenses occurred on August 14, 1994, a date that falls between Kahoe’s plea of guilty on March 16, 1994, which Judge Sporkin accepted and adjudicated, and Kahoe’s sentencing on February 6, 1995, when the Judgment in his criminal ease was executed and entered.

II. CONCLUSIONS OF LAW

The United States contends that under 18 U.S.C. § 921(a)(20)1, and relevant case law, a federal conviction accrues upon a defendant’s plea of guilty which is accepted by the district court, and then adjudged guilty, notwithstanding that the written judgment is not entered until a later date.

Kahoe argues that under Fed.R.Crim.P. 32(b)(1), Fed.R.Evid. 803(22), and 18 U.S.C. § 921(a)(20), a federal conviction accrues upon a written judgment of guilty entered immediately after an appropriate sentence is formally imposed by the district court.2

[686]*686In Dickerson v. New Banner Institute, Inc., 460 U.S. 103, 111-12, 103 S.Ct. 986, 991-92, 74 L.Ed.2d 845 (1983), the Supreme Court held that for purposes of federal gun control laws, the definition of conviction was a question of federal law since there was an absence of Congress’ intent to the contrary. In 1986, Congress subsequently overruled Dickerson by the enactment of the Firearm Owners’ Protection Act3, which requires that a conviction be defined in accordance with the laws of the particular jurisdiction in which the criminal proceedings are held. See 18 U.S.C. § 921(a)(20) (hereinafter, the “Amendment”).

The Amendment has had the effect of creating 52 different definitions of when a conviction accrues. There are 50 different state definitions, the local court definition for the District of Columbia and the federal court definition, whenever a federal prosecution is brought under 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1).4

In Dickerson, the defendant pled guilty in a state court to the charge of carrying a concealed weapon. The Supreme Court held that, for purposes of federal law, a guilty plea by itself was conclusive and was itself a conviction. Consequently, notwithstanding the Amendment which gave effect to conviction definitions under state and local District of Columbia law, Dickerson remains good law as to when a federal conviction accrues under federal law.

In United States v. Jones, 993 F.2d 1131 (4th Cir.1993), the Fourth Circuit was presented with the question whether a state’s post-conviction restoration of rights eliminated a prior federal conviction for purposes of a violation of 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1). In that case, the defendant was indicted on one count of making a false statement in connection with the purchase of a firearm in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 922(a)(6) and 924(a)(1)(B). The indictment alleged that the defendant had previously been convicted in both U.S. District Court and state court of several felonies. The Fourth Circuit held that the underlying conviction in federal district court, and not state court, was a viable predicate conviction under the federal firearms act. Id. at 1133.

The Jones decision departed from prior decisions in both the Eighth5 and Ninth6 Circuit, which had held that a state’s restoration of rights scheme can negate even a prior federal conviction for the purpose of 18 U.S.C. §§ 921 and 922. Because Jones created a split in the circuits, the Supreme Court granted certiorari in Beecham v. United States, — U.S. -, 114 S.Ct. 1669, 128 L.Ed.2d 383 (1994). In Beecham, the Supreme Court agreed with the Fourth Circuit and held that one should look to federal law, not state law, when the underlying predicate conviction was in federal court. The Court held that a state’s restoration of rights did not remove the disability of possessing a firearm imposed by federal law. Id. at -, 114 S.Ct. at 1671-72.

While not dispositive on the precise issue presented by Kahoe’s situation, the reasoning employed by the Fourth Circuit in Jones, and the Supreme Court in Beecham,

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61 F.3d 22 (Eleventh Circuit, 1995)
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Boykin v. Alabama
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Dickerson v. New Banner Institute, Inc.
460 U.S. 103 (Supreme Court, 1983)
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Beecham v. United States
511 U.S. 368 (Supreme Court, 1994)

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Bluebook (online)
902 F. Supp. 684, 1995 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 16290, 1995 WL 646051, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-kahoe-vaed-1995.