US v. Deante Banks, No. 15-4629 (4th Cir. 2016)
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UNPUBLISHED UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT No. 15-4629 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff - Appellee, v. DEANTE LAMONT BANKS, Defendant - Appellant. Appeal from the United States District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina, at Greensboro. Catherine C. Eagles, District Judge. (1:15-cr-00023-CCE-1) Submitted: May 24, 2016 Decided: June 16, 2016 Before AGEE, FLOYD, and THACKER, Circuit Judges. Affirmed by unpublished per curiam opinion. Todd A. Smith, LAW OFFICE OF TODD ALLEN SMITH, Graham, North Carolina, for Appellant. Ripley Rand, United States Attorney, Terry M. Meinecke, Assistant United States Attorney, WinstonSalem, North Carolina, for Appellee. Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit. PER CURIAM: Deante Lamont Banks appeals his conviction following his guilty plea to possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 922(g)(1), 924(a)(2) (2012). Two prior North Carolina convictions served as predicate felonies for purposes of § 922(g)(1): possession of cocaine, for which the state court imprisonment, sentenced and Banks possession of to a 6 to 17 months of schedule II controlled substance, for which the state court sentenced him to 5 to 15 months of imprisonment. On appeal, Banks asserts that the offenses were not felonies because neither exposed him to an active prison term of more than 12 months. We affirm. In United States v. Barlow, 811 F.3d 133 (4th Cir. 2015), we addressed the impact of the Justice Reinvestment Act of 2011 (“JRA”), 2011 N.C. Sess. Structured Sentencing Act. Laws 192, on the North Carolina “[T]he Structured Sentencing Act and its statutory tables determine if a crime is punishable by a term of imprisonment of more than one year.” Id. at 137; see United States v. Simmons, 649 F.3d 237, 240, 249-50 (4th Cir. 2011) (en banc). supervision for “[T]he [JRA] mandates terms of post-release all convicted sentences of life without parole.” felons except those serving Barlow, 811 F.3d at 137. In Banks’ case, the JRA required him to serve 9 months of his 6-to17-month and 5-to-15-month sentences on postrelease supervision. 2 We prior reiterated term of in Barlow imprisonment that, in qualifies determining as a whether felony, a Simmons requires us to “ask only what term of imprisonment the defendant was exposed to for his conviction, not the most likely duration of his imprisonment.” Id. at 140. renders supervision post-release We held that “state law part of the term of imprisonment,” id., such that “all North Carolina felonies now qualify as federal predicate felonies,” id. at 137. Thus, as forecloses his Banks appeal. court’s judgment. facts and materials legal before acknowledges, Accordingly, our we decision affirm in the Barlow district We dispense with oral argument because the contentions are adequately this and argument court presented would not in the aid the decisional process. AFFIRMED 3
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