{"id":1149,"date":"2024-07-28T00:03:00","date_gmt":"2024-07-28T04:03:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/?p=1149"},"modified":"2026-01-09T08:29:25","modified_gmt":"2026-01-09T13:29:25","slug":"supreme-court-discusses-serious-drug-offenses-under-the-armed-career-criminal-act","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/supreme-court-discusses-serious-drug-offenses-under-the-armed-career-criminal-act\/","title":{"rendered":"Supreme Court Discusses Serious Drug Offenses Under the Armed Career Criminal Act"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Pursuant to the Armed Career Criminal Act, people convicted of serious drug offenses may face enhanced penalties if they are later convicted of another crime. There is often a dispute over what constitutes a serious offense, however. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.scotusblog.com\/case-files\/cases\/brown-v-united-states-4\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Recently<\/a>, the United States Supreme Court clarified the Armed Career Criminal Act, ultimately adopting a backward-looking approach. If you are accused of a crime and have a history of drug crime convictions, it is advisable to speak to a Tampa drug crime defense attorney about your potential defenses at your earliest convenience.<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Facts and Procedure of the Case<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is reported that in 2016, police officers conducted a warrant-authorized search of the defendant&#8217;s home, where they found cocaine, scales, and a loaded firearm. Subsequently, the Middle District of Pennsylvania accepted the defendant&#8217;s guilty plea to one count of drug distribution and one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm in July 2019. The Probation Office recommended sentencing the defendant under the Armed Career Criminal Act (ACCA) due to his five prior convictions: four for possession of marijuana with intent to deliver and one for delivering cocaine.<\/p>\n<div class=\"read_more_link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/supreme-court-discusses-serious-drug-offenses-under-the-armed-career-criminal-act\/\"  title=\"Continue Reading Supreme Court Discusses Serious Drug Offenses Under the Armed Career Criminal Act\" class=\"more-link\">Continue Reading \u203a<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Pursuant to the Armed Career Criminal Act, people convicted of serious drug offenses may face enhanced penalties if they are later convicted of another crime. There is often a dispute over what constitutes a serious offense, however. Recently, the United States Supreme Court clarified the Armed Career Criminal Act, ultimately adopting a backward-looking approach. If [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1877,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1149","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-drug-crimes"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Serious Drug Offenses Under the ACCA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Discover how the Supreme Court defines \u201cserious drug offenses\u201d under the Armed Career Criminal Act and why the label matters.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/supreme-court-discusses-serious-drug-offenses-under-the-armed-career-criminal-act\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Serious Drug Offenses Under the ACCA\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"Discover how the Supreme Court defines \u201cserious drug offenses\u201d under the Armed Career Criminal Act and why the label matters.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/supreme-court-serious-drug-offense-armed-career-criminal-act-gun-drugs.webp\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Hanlon Law, PA\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Serious Drug 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