United States v. Carter, No. 18-3713 (7th Cir. 2020)
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Four months after escaping from a work-release facility, an intoxicated Carter walked into an Illinois bar. He told an employee that a white-supremacist gang was searching for him and then walked out. The employee called the police, who stopped Carter on the street and discovered an active arrest warrant related to his escape. As he was being handcuffed, Carter stated that he was “strapped” and gestured towards his pants. Officers seized a stolen, loaded semiautomatic pistol from Carter’s waistband. Carter pleaded guilty to possessing a firearm as a felon, 18 U.S.C. 922(g). The court calculated his Sentencing Guideline range based on a finding that he had previously sustained at least two felony convictions for “crimes of violence,” U.S.S.G. 2K2.1(a)(2), and imposed a sentence of 105 months' imprisonment, at the top of the guideline range.
The Seventh Circuit affirmed. Carter had at least two prior felony convictions (a California conviction for assault with a deadly weapon and an Iowa conviction for aggravated assault) that qualify as crimes of violence under the categorical approach. The court noted that district judges may and should use their sound discretion to sentence under 18 U.S.C. 3553(a) on the basis of reliable information about the defendant’s criminal history even where a strict categorical classification of a prior conviction might produce a different guideline sentencing range.
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