The Supreme Court ruled unanimously that a burglar’s 10 prior convictions arising from a single criminal episode don’t count as multiple convictions under a federal three-strikes sentencing law.
The often-litigated federal Armed Career Criminal Act (ACCA) of 1984 was enacted in response to concerns that a small number of repeat offenders commit a disproportionate number of offenses. The statute requires that a 15-year minimum sentence be imposed on individuals found guilty of illegally possessing a firearm who have three or more prior convictions for a violent felony such as burglary “committed on occasions different from one another.”
