Thursday, 20 November 2014

If a person was arrested for a violent crime, and as part of a plea agreement, the prosecution allowed the crime to be considered as a non-v...

Question

If a person was arrested for a violent crime, and as part of a plea agreement, the prosecution allowed the crime to be considered as a non-violent offense. After the defendant plead no contest he was found guilty of a non-violent crime. The sentence was allowed to run concurrent with a previous sentence he was serving. So my question is this, if the defendant gets re-arrested on the federal level, can they use this conviction which was considered a non-violent conviction by the state court, can it be used or counted in determining the defendant for the armed career criminal category?



Answer

If the factual basis of the crime to which a guilty plea was entered involved violence, then the feds will count it no matter what it is called in the plea agreement. A no contest plea is a guilty plea. If the crime is less than 10 years old, or involved a firearm or domestic violence, it will be counted in the Guidelines computations under the ACCA.



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