Summary
The Eleventh Circuit held that Jerome Miller Jr.’s three Florida convictions for delivery of cocaine did not qualify as serious drug offenses under the Armed Career Criminal Act. Because Florida law defined cocaine more broadly than federal law at the time Miller committed the offenses, the categorical approach required treating the convictions as categorically overbroad. The court vacated Miller’s 180-month sentence and remanded for resentencing.
Topics
Practice areas
Questions Presented
- Whether Miller's three Florida convictions for delivery of cocaine qualified as serious drug offenses under the Armed Career Criminal Act.
- When state drug-law amendments occurring between commission of a state offense and conviction should be considered in applying ACCA's categorical approach.
- Whether Florida's definition of cocaine was categorically broader than ACCA's federal controlled-substance definition because Florida law treated ioflupane as cocaine at the time Miller committed the offenses.
Holdings
- When applying ACCA's categorical approach, a federal sentencing court must determine under state law which version of the state statute applied to the offense. If state law contains a saving provision preserving the law in effect when the offense was committed, the court must use that version rather than the amended law in effect at conviction.
- Miller's Florida convictions for delivery of cocaine did not qualify as serious drug offenses under ACCA because Florida's definition of cocaine was categorically broader than federal law at the time Miller committed the offenses.
- Florida Statutes § 893.13(1)(a) is divisible as to drug type, so the court could treat Miller's convictions as involving cocaine specifically rather than any controlled substance.
Key quotations
“We hold that they do not.” (at 6)
“But when the relevant state law changes during the interval between commission and conviction of the offense, the federal sentencing court must perform a more nuanced analysis.” (at 24-25)
“Because Miller’s offense of conviction was broader than federal law, we hold that his Florida convictions do not qualify as serious drug offenses under ACCA.” (at 28)
“VACATED AND REMANDED.” (at 28)
Factual background
Miller and two others entered a victim's home, used a firearm to demand money and a truck, took the victim's keys, forced him to sign over the truck title, and drove away. Officers later stopped Miller while he was driving the stolen truck and found ammunition on him and a firearm in the truck. Miller also had three Florida convictions arising from cocaine-delivery offenses committed in February and March 2017; Florida law then included ioflupane within its definition of cocaine, while federal law had removed ioflupane from the federal drug schedules.
Procedural history
A federal grand jury charged Miller under 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1). After he pleaded guilty, the district court determined that three Florida convictions for delivery of cocaine were serious drug offenses under ACCA and imposed the 15-year mandatory minimum sentence. The Eleventh Circuit held that the state offenses were categorically broader than ACCA's federal controlled-substance definition because Florida law treated ioflupane as cocaine at the time of the offenses, vacated the sentence, and remanded for resentencing without the ACCA enhancement.
Remand instructions
Vacate Miller's sentence and remand to the district court for resentencing without the ACCA enhancement.