United States v. Lee, No. 13-10517 (9th Cir. 2016)
Annotate this CaseDefendant appealed his sentence after being convicted of distributing crack cocaine. The court vacated the sentence because it found that the district court erred by imposing a career offender enhancement under USSG 4B1.1(a)(3) in light of his two prior California drug convictions. The court concluded that neither of his two prior convictions was for a crime of violence as defined by the residual clause because the convictions do not qualify under the case law that predated Johnson v. United States. Therefore, the court need not address whether the residual clause in USSG 4B1.2(a)(2) is unconstitutionally vague. Because defendant has only one qualifying conviction, the career offender enhancement is not warranted. The court remanded for resentencing.
Court Description: Criminal Law. Vacating a sentence and remanding for resentencing, the panel held that neither the defendant’s conviction under Calif. Penal Code § 243.1 nor his conviction under Calif. Penal Code § 69 was for a “crime of violence” as defined by the residual clause of the career offender guideline, U.S.S.G. § 4B1.2(a)(2). The panel wrote that because neither of the convictions qualifies under the case law that predated Johnson v. United States, 135 S. Ct. 2551 (2015), it did not need to address whether, in light of Johnson, the residual clause in § 4B1.2(a)(2) is unconstitutionally vague. Judge Ikuta dissented because the majority applies cases that the Supreme Court in Johnson has expressly overruled to decide the defendant’s claim that his prior offenses do not qualify as crimes of violence under § 4B1.2.
The court issued a subsequent related opinion or order on May 27, 2016.
Some case metadata and case summaries were written with the help of AI, which can produce inaccuracies. You should read the full case before relying on it for legal research purposes.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.