Court takes enhanced sentencing case (April 21, 2008)

The Supreme Court has agreed to decide whether a failure to report to prison that leads to a conviction for escape can be the basis for enhanced sentencing under the Armed Career Criminal Act.

Deondery Chambers pleaded guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm. In May 2006, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois sentenced him to 188 months in prison under the Armed Career Criminal Act, 18 U.S.C. 924(e), which holds that a felony is violent if it “involves conduct that presents a serious potential risk of physical injury to another.”

On Jan. 9, 2007, a three-judge panel on the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the lower court’s judgment with reservations.

“We shall adhere to the precedents for now. But it is an embarrassment to the law when judges base decisions of consequence on conjectures, in this case a conjecture as to the possible danger of physical injury posed by criminals who fail to show up to begin serving their sentences,” Judge Richard Posner wrote.

In asking the Supreme Court to take the case, Chambers and his attorneys point to the “substantial gap in the interpretation and application of the ACCA.”

“Failure-to-report escapes occur frequently, and as the body of appellate decisions rulings on whether such escapes are violent crimes indicates, they are often relied upon to support an enhanced sentenced for armed career offenders.”

The Supreme Court accepted the case for review on April 21, 2008.

Question presented:

Whether, under enhanced sentencing guidelines, the failure to report to prison is the equivalent of escape.