United States v. McCurry, No. 15-3425 (8th Cir. 2016)
Annotate this CaseDefendant plead guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm. The district court categorized defendant pursuant to the Armed Career Criminal Act (ACCA), 18 U.S.C. 924(e), and sentenced defendant to the the fifteen-year mandatory minimum sentence in accordance with the ACCA. The court rejected defendant's contention that the sentence constitutes cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth Amendment because defendant has lower intelligence. In this case, the sentence imposed does not fall within the purview of the Eighth Amendment where he does not face capital punishment or life imprisonment without the possibility of parole, he is neither a juvenile nor mentally disabled, he was found competent to stand trial, and his sentence reflects prior convictions for violent felonies. Accordingly, the court affirmed the judgment.
Court Description: Bright, Author, with Murphy and Shepherd, Circuit Judges] Criminal Case - Armed Career Criminal Act. Eighth Amendment challenge to sentence under the Armed Career Criminal Act based on his lower intelligence fails.
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