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United Statesv.Torrance James Lockett

CourtUnited States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
Docket No.14-15084
DecidedJanuary 21, 2016
Reporter810 F.3d 1262
JudgesCircuit Judges Gerald B. Tjoflat, Beverly B. Martin, and R. Lanier Anderson; Martin authored
Tags
CriminalCriminal ProcedureSentencingSixth AmendmentSentencing GuidelinesStatutory InterpretationVacaturRemand
Case Summary

Torrance Lockett was sentenced under the Armed Career Criminal Act after the district court counted two South Carolina burglary convictions as qualifying predicates. The Eleventh Circuit held that the South Carolina burglary statute was neither generic nor divisible and that the record did not establish the kind of dwelling or portion of a dwelling Lockett had entered. Under the Sixth Amendment, those facts could not be supplied by judicial examination of approved documents. The court therefore concluded that the two convictions should not have supported the ACCA enhancement, vacated Lockett’s sentence, and remanded for resentencing. The court distinguished an earlier plain-error decision that had treated the statute’s divisibility as uncertain rather than resolving the issue on de novo review.

Opinion

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