Brewer v. United States, No. 22-3452 (8th Cir. 2024)
Annotate this CaseThe United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit affirmed the denial of Thomas Brewer's motion to vacate his sentence under 28 U.S.C. § 2255. Brewer, who had been convicted of voluntary manslaughter and discharging a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence, sought to challenge the legality of his 10-year prison sentence for the latter charge. He argued that voluntary manslaughter did not qualify as a "crime of violence" under § 924(c). However, the appellate court rejected this argument. It held that voluntary manslaughter does constitute a crime of violence as it involves a higher level of mens rea or mental state (depraved heart recklessness or general intent to kill) than ordinary recklessness, which the Supreme Court in Borden v. United States deemed insufficient to meet the use-of-force criteria for a crime of violence. The court also relied on its prior decision in McCoy v. United States which held that voluntary manslaughter is a crime of violence under § 924(c)(3)(A). The court concluded that Borden did not supersede McCoy as it did not address whether an offense committed with depraved heart or extreme recklessness has as an element the use of force against the person of another. The court also rejected Brewer's reliance on United States v. Lung’aho, which held that arson is not a crime of violence, noting that second-degree murder, if committed with a mental state of depraved heart or extreme recklessness, requires “more risk and culpability” than arson.
Court Description: [Colloton, Author, with Smith, Chief Judge, and Loken, Circuit Judge] Criminal case - Sentencing. The court reaffirms that under Borden v. United States, 141 S. Ct. 1817 (2021), voluntary manslaughter has as an element the use of force against the person of another, and the district court did not err in denying Brewer's motion Section 2255 to vacate his sentence for discharging a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence on the ground that his accompanying conviction for voluntary manslaughter was not a crime of violence.
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