Dembry v. United States, No. 17-2849 (8th Cir. 2019)
Annotate this CaseThe Eighth Circuit affirmed the district court's order dismissing a petition to vacate petitioner's sentence under 28 U.S.C. 2255, and denied the Government's motion to remand. The court held that petitioner's Illinois robbery convictions were violent felonies under the Armed Career Criminal Act's force clause, and thus petitioner could not prevail on the merits of his claim even if he could show that his original ACCA sentence relied on the residual clause. Furthermore, the court did not read Walker v. United States, 900 F.3d 1012 (8th Cir. 2018), to require a remand that serves no practical purpose, either because the parties concede the sentencing record will shed no light on the question, or because the merits make clear that a movant is not entitled to relief.
Court Description: Gruender,Author, with Wollman and Shepherd, Circuit Judges] Prisoner case - Habeas. For Dembry's direct appeal, see U.S. v. Dembry, 535 F.3d 798 (8th Cir. 2016). Dembry's Illinois robbery convictions qualified as violent felonies under the force clause, and the court need not decide whether they also qualified under the residual clause; the district court did not err in dismissing Dembry's petition to vacate his sentence, and the government's motion for a remand is denied.
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