Restoring the Armed Career Criminal Act

This bill expands the criminal offenses that qualify as prior convictions for the purpose of enhanced sentencing under the Armed Career Criminal Act (ACCA).

Currently, the ACCA imposes a 15-year mandatory minimum prison term on a defendant who possesses, receives, or transports a firearm as a prohibited person (e.g., felon) and has three or more prior convictions for a serious drug offense or violent felony (or both) committed on separate occasions.

The term serious drug offense means a federal or state offense with a statutory maximum prison term of 10 years or more. A state offense must involve the manufacture, distribution, or possession of a controlled substance as defined in the Controlled Substances Act.

The term violent felony means any crime punishable by a prison term of more than one year that (1) has as an element the use, attempted use, or threatened use of physical force; or (2) is burglary, arson, or extortion, or involves explosives.

This bill replaces serious drug offense and violent felony with a new category of qualifying prior offense: serious felony convictions. The term serious felony conviction means (1) any conviction that, at the time of sentencing, was a felony offense punishable by a statutory maximum prison term of 10 years or more; or (2) any group of convictions imposed in the same proceeding or in consolidated proceedings with a total prison term of 10 years of more, regardless of how many years the defendant served.