Vitrano v. United States, No. 10-2357 (7th Cir. 2011)
Annotate this CaseDefendant was sentenced to 120 months' imprisonment as a felon possessing a firearm, 18 U.S.C. 922(g)(1), while subject to a domestic abuse injunction. On remand for sentencing under the Armed Career Criminal Act, 18 U.S.C. 924(e)(1) because defendant had three convictions for violent felonies, the court imposed an above-guidelines sentence of 360 months after hearing that he had sent an ex-girlfriend pipe bombs and abused other women. The Seventh Circuit affirmed. Defendant moved to vacate (28 U.S.C. 2255), claiming ineffective assistance and that he had located a discharge certificate restoring civil rights he lost with a conviction for reckless endangerment that would render the conviction uncountable for ACCA purposes. The government concluded that the certificate was fake and charged defendant with perjury and corrupt influence. Defendant moved to amend his motion, to contend that an escape conviction should not have been considered a violent felony and that treating reckless endangerment as a violent felony was improper, without reference to his original claims. The district court dismissed the original motion and the motion to amend and denied a certificate of appealability. The Seventh Circuit vacated and remanded, holding that the motion to amend was not a successive petition over which the district court lacked jurisdiction.
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