United States v. Thompson, No. 17-2985 (7th Cir. 2018)
Annotate this CaseThompson pled guilty as a felon in possession of a firearm, 18 U.S.C 922(g)(1). He admitted he possessed the firearm and initially conceded he was a felon based on his prior conviction of aggravated unlawful use of a weapon (AUUW), an Illinois state‐law offense. Later, he moved to set aside his plea on the basis that the AUUW conviction was invalid and he should not have been considered a felon. The Seventh Circuit (2012) and the Illinois Supreme Court (2013) had deemed the AUUW statute unconstitutional before Thompson was charged but Thompson never moved to have the conviction vacated or expunged. The district court, relying on the Supreme Court’s decision in Lewis v. United States (1980), denied his motion and sentenced him to 16 months’ imprisonment. The Seventh Circuit affirmed, rejecting Thompson’s argument that a conviction for violating a state statute later ruled unconstitutional and void ab initio cannot serve as a predicate offense for the federal felon in possession statute. The plain meaning of section 922(g)(1) “is that the fact of a felony conviction imposes [a] firearm disability until the conviction is vacated or the felon is relieved of his disability by some affirmative action. … No exception ... is made for a person whose outstanding felony conviction ultimately might turn out to be invalid for any reason.”
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