Citation

Lamprecht K. J. Crim. Law Criminol. 2008; 98(4): 1407-1438.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2008, Northwestern University School of Law)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Legislative history indicates that the Armed Career Criminal Act (ACCA), which provides for increased sentences for offenders who have three qualifying prior convictions, was intended to be applied narrowly to the smallest possible subset of offenders qualifying as 'career criminals.' Any prior conviction must satisfy both a substantive elements requirement and a sentencing requirement. Courts have established a standard for only one of these-the substantive elements requirement. In an attempt to narrow the scope of qualifying prior convictions and ensure national uniformity of application, the Supreme Court has provided a 'formal categorical' approach to evaluating prior convictions. This test compares the substantive elements that were proven to a jury in a previous conviction to the elements of the generic offense. While this approach has resulted in greater uniformity in application of ACCA, in the two decades since its establishment, the formal categorical approach has failed to result in either the nationwide consistency or the narrowing of ACCA's scope that Congress and the courts, have intended. An equivalent test for the other requirement a prior conviction must meet-that the underlying conduct constitute a crime punishable by imprisonment for a term exceeding one year would solve many of the problems currently plaguing ACCA. This standard should discount any sentencing enhancements previously applied to prior convictions and would allow consistent evaluation of convictions at the national level, independent of variance in state law. A single, nationally-uniform source of sentencing guidelines could come from national averages of the sentence ranges currently existing in the criminal codes of most states, or from the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines Manual. This uniform approach to the sentencing requirement would allow courts to apply ACCA's requirements on a national level consistently and with a narrow scope-reducing disproportionality in sentencing, increasing the deterrent effectiveness of ACCA, and accomplishing Congress's goal of selective incapacitation of the worst, most unrehabilitative of career criminals.