United States v. Benton, No. 09-6322 (6th Cir. 2011)
Annotate this CaseDefendant, convicted as a felon in possession of a firearm (18 U.S.C. 922(g)), argued that a prior conviction for solicitation to commit aggravated assault should not qualify as a “violent felony” under the Armed Career Criminal Act, 18 U.S.C. 924(e)and that the district court should have allowed him to withdraw his guilty plea to pursue a suppression hearing. The Sixth Circuit affirmed. The 93-day period between the plea and the motion to withdraw it, with no valid excuse or assertion of actual innocence, justified denial. The defendant relied on a Supreme Court holding, entered two months before his plea, that police may search a vehicle incident to a recent occupant’s arrest only if the arrestee is within reaching distance of the passenger compartment at the time of the search or it is reasonable to believe the vehicle contains evidence of the offense of arrest. The Tennessee offense of solicitation to commit aggravated assault involves conduct that presents a serious potential risk of physical injury to another and involves the same kind of purposeful, violent and oppressive conduct as the enumerated offenses and qualifies as a violent felony.
Some case metadata and case summaries were written with the help of AI, which can produce inaccuracies. You should read the full case before relying on it for legal research purposes.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.