LawyersUSA

Repeat DUI convictions are not "violent felonies" as defined by the federal Armed Career Criminal Act that trigger a mandatory 15-year minimum sentencing provision for felons in possession of a firearm, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled.

The defendant was arrested for threatening his family members with a rifle. He pled guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm. His presentence investigation report showed a dozen DUI convictions.

A state law provided that DUI convictions become felonies after a third conviction. As a result, the sentencing judge found the defendant had at least three prior crimes punishable by more than one year's imprisonment. He also found those convictions were "violent felonies" under the Act.

The state argued that repeat DUI convictions qualified as violent felonies under the Act because those convicted knowingly risk physical injury to others.

The Supreme Court disagreed, in an opinion written by Justice Stephen Breyer.

"[C]rimes involving intentional or purposeful conduct (as in burglary and arson) are different than DUI, a strict liability crime. In both instances, the offender's prior crimes reveal a degree of callousness toward risk, but in the former instance they also show an increased likelihood that the offender is the kind of person who might deliberately point the gun and pull the trigger," the Court said.

"We have no reason to believe that Congress intended to bring within the statute's scope these kinds of crimes, far removed as they are from the deliberate kind of behavior associated with violent criminal use of firearms."

Justice Antonin Scalia wrote an opinion concurring in the judgment. Justices Samuel Alito, David Souter and Clarence Thomas dissented.

U.S. Supreme Court. Begay v. U.S., No. 06-11543. April 16, 2008. Lawyers USA No. 9939713. Click here for the full text of this opinion.