Supreme Court will hear Mathis case related to Armed Career Criminal Act

Newswise — The U.S. Supreme Court this week announced it will hear a case about whether a sentence enhancement Iowa resident Richard Mathis received under the Armed Career Criminal Act was fair. Mathis was arrested in 2013 after a 15-year-old boy claimed the man molested him. Federal prosecutors, however, indicted Mathis on a single count of being a felon in possession of a firearm – and a federal judge later sentenced him to 15 years in prison under the Armed Career Criminal Act, citing five prior second-degree burglary convictions as violent felonies under the act. The nation’s high court will hear the case in the weeks ahead, to clarify rules related to career criminal sentencing. Carissa Byrne Hessick, a law professor at the S.J. Quinney College of Law at the University of Utah, is prepared to comment on the case and can explain why it's important in a time when many federal statutes incorporate state convictions and the definition of state crimes continue to expand.

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