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Sneed: Precluding Police Reports as Source for 924(e) Temporality Findings

By Tim Cone

In U.S. v. Sneed, No. 09-13195 (March 24, 2010), the Court vacated the 15-year minimum mandatory sentence imposed, based on his three prior convictions, on a defendant convicted of being a felon in possession of firearm, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 924(e).Section 924(e) provides for a sentence enhancement if the defendant committed three prior qualifying felonies on occasions different from one another. The district court, over Sneed?s objection, found that the three prior felonies were committed on different occasions ? based only on police reports.On appeal, the Court recognized that U.S. v. Richardson, 230 F.3d 1297 (11th Cir. 2000), held that a sentencing court could consider police reports for purposes of determining whether three prior qualifying felonies were committed on occasions different from one another...continue to full post

Full post as published by Defense Newsletter Blog on March 25, 2010 (boomark / email).