United States v. Cornette, No. 18-6041 (4th Cir. 2019)
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The Fourth Circuit granted defendant's 28 U.S.C. 2255 petition and held, as a preliminary matter, that the appeal waiver in defendant's plea agreement did not bar the court from reaching the merits of his Armed Career Criminal Act (ACCA) claim.
The court held that defendant's 1976 Georgia burglary conviction did not qualify as a violent crime under the ACCA where the Georgia burglary statute, as construed by the applicable Georgia court at the time of defendant's conviction, was overbroad compared to the generic burglary crime in the enumerated clause of the ACCA. Therefore, defendant's 1976 burglary conviction was not a "violent felony" for purposes of the ACCA sentencing enhancement. The court also held that defendant's North Carolina controlled substance convictions did not qualify as serious drug offenses under the ACCA, because it was not a "serious drug crime" under the ACCA.
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