United States v. Mark Eldon Crews

495 F. App'x 36
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
DecidedOctober 31, 2012
Docket12-11022
StatusUnpublished

This text of 495 F. App'x 36 (United States v. Mark Eldon Crews) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Mark Eldon Crews, 495 F. App'x 36 (11th Cir. 2012).

Opinion

PER CURIAM:

Mark Crews appeals his 180-month sentence for possession of a firearm as a felon and armed career criminal, as determined by the Armed Career Criminal Act (“ACCA”). See 18 U.S.C. §§ 922(g)(1), *38 924(e). Crews qualified as an armed career criminal under the ACCA due to his prior convictions for burglarizing or attempting to burglarize various businesses and his 180-month sentence was the minimum sentence required by the ACCA. 18 U.S.C. § 924(e)(1). On appeal, Crews argues that the ACCA is unconstitutional under the Fifth, Sixth, and Eighth Amendments; that the district court erred in applying a four-level increase to Crews’s offense level for use or possession of a firearm in connection with another felony offense; and that his sentence is substantively unreasonable.

I.

Crews first argues that the ACCA and its implementing guidelines are unconstitutional based on the Equal Protection Clause because the distinction between generic (i.e., structure) and non-generic (i.e., non-structure) burglaries bears no rational relationship to a legitimate government purpose. See Lofton v. Sec’y. of Dep’t. of Children and Family Servs., 358 F.3d 804, 817-18 (11th Cir.2004) (“[W]hen a challenged classification does not burden a fundamental right or target a suspect class, we determine whether the classification is rationally related to a legitimate state interest.). We review the constitutionality of statutes de novo. United States v. Reynolds, 215 F.3d 1210, 1212 (11th Cir. 2000). For rational-basis equal protection challenges, the “legislation must be sustained if there is any conceivable basis for the legislature that the means they have selected will tend to accomplish the desired end[.]” Bah v. City of Atlanta, 103 F.3d 964, 967 (11th Cir.1997).

Under the ACCA, a person convicted under 18 U.S.C. § 922(g) is subject to a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years’ imprisonment if he has three prior convictions for a violent felony or serious drug offense, committed on different occasions. 18 U.S.C. § 924(e)(1). Regarding burglary, “[a]s the [ACCA] has been interpreted, a conviction for ‘generic burglary' counts as a violent felony, while a conviction for ‘non-generic burglary’ does not.” United States v. Rainer, 616 F.3d 1212, 1213 (11th Cir.2010). A “generic” burglary is “any crime, regardless of its exact definition or label, having the basic elements of unlawful or unprivileged entry into, or remaining in, a building or structure, with intent to commit a crime.” Taylor v. United States, 495 U.S. 575, 599, 110 S.Ct. 2143, 109 L.Ed.2d 607 (1990). A “non-generic” burglary is one that “do[es] not include all of the elements essential to generic burglaries,” including burglaries of boats, automobiles, and other non-buildings. Rainer, 616 F.3d at 1214.

The government has a legitimate interest in “prevent[ing] repeat offenders from continuing to victimize society.” See United States v. Johns, 984 F.2d 1162, 1164 (11th Cir.1993) (holding that sentencing criminals in part based on criminal history is rationally related to a legitimate government interest). The Supreme Court in Taylor determined that Congress targeted burglaries of buildings and structures because of the inherent potential for a violent confrontation, Taylor, 495 U.S. at 588, 110 S.Ct. 2143, 1 and also likely be *39 cause such generic burglaries “were so often committed by career criminals[,]” Id. at 597, 110 S.Ct. 2143. Accordingly, we reject Crews’s argument that the application of the ACCA to generic burglaries is not rationally related to a legitimate government interest.

II.

Crews next argues that the ACCA and its implementing guidelines are unconstitutional based on the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment because the sentencing scheme imposes a mandatory minimum sentence without regard for the circumstances of the predicate convictions. In noncapital cases, the Eighth Amendment forbids extreme sentences that are grossly disproportionate to the crime. United States v. Farley, 607 F.3d 1294, 1343 (11th Cir. 2010); United States v. Lyons, 403 F.3d 1248, 1256 (11th Cir.2005).

We have already held that the ACCA’s 15-year mandatory minimum sentence is neither cruel and unusual punishment nor disproportionate to the offense of being a felon in possession of a firearm. See U.S. v. Reynolds, 215 F.3d 1210, 1214 (11th Cir.2000) (affirming 180-month sentence imposed after defendant’s guilty plea to possession of firearm by convicted felon in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 922(g)(1) and 924(e)). In determining this proportionality, we do not focus on the circumstances related to the predicate convictions, “but rather on the fact that a person with three or more violent felony or serious drug convictions currently possesses a firearm.” Id. Likewise, we conclude here that Crews’s sentence was not grossly disproportionate to the offense and thus did not violate the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. See id. at 1212-13.

III.

Crews further argues that the ACCA and its implementing sentencing guidelines are unconstitutional based on the Sixth Amendment because Crews has a right to have a jury find any factor that enhances his sentence, including his prior convictions. Under the Sixth Amendment, a defendant has the right to demand that a jury find him guilty of all the elements of the crime with which he is charged. United States v. Booker, 543 U.S. 220, 230, 125 S.Ct. 738, 160 L.Ed.2d 621 (2005). In Almendarez-Torres v. United States, the Supreme Court held that a prior conviction is not a fact that must be alleged in the indictment or found by a jury beyond a reasonable doubt. 523 U.S. 224, 239-47, 118 S.Ct. 1219, 140 L.Ed.2d 350 (1998).

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Related

United States v. Daniel J. Lyons, Jr.
403 F.3d 1248 (Eleventh Circuit, 2005)
Taylor v. United States
495 U.S. 575 (Supreme Court, 1990)
Almendarez-Torres v. United States
523 U.S. 224 (Supreme Court, 1998)
United States v. Booker
543 U.S. 220 (Supreme Court, 2004)
United States v. Brenton-Farley
607 F.3d 1294 (Eleventh Circuit, 2010)
United States v. Rainer
616 F.3d 1212 (Eleventh Circuit, 2010)
United States v. Gomes
621 F.3d 1343 (Eleventh Circuit, 2010)
United States v. Steven Michael Johns
984 F.2d 1162 (Eleventh Circuit, 1993)
Mohamed I. Bah v. City of Atlanta
103 F.3d 964 (Eleventh Circuit, 1997)
United States v. Sarras
575 F.3d 1191 (Eleventh Circuit, 2009)

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Bluebook (online)
495 F. App'x 36, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-mark-eldon-crews-ca11-2012.