Supreme Court limits use of prior convictions to enhance sentencing

[JURIST] The US Supreme Court [official website] ruled [opinion, PDF] 8-1 Thursday in Descamps v. United States [SCOTUSblog backgrounder] to limit the way sentencing courts can use prior convictions to enhance sentencing for federal crimes. The question before the court was whether Matthew Descamps' burglary conviction under California law could allow a conviction under federal burglary law, which had slightly different requirements than California's statute. Federal judges used the "modified categorical approach" and looked at a limited number of documents...

Source: http://jurist.org/paperchase/2013/06/supreme-court-2.php

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