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ALABAMA ROBBERY BECOME NONVIOLENT

The 9th Circuit threw out Donnie Lee Walton’s conviction under the Armed Career Criminal Act last week, holding that Alabama first-degree robbery under Criminal Code § 13A-8-41 was not a violent felony under the ACCA, because the force required to support a conviction for 3rd-degree robbery (in the same statute) is not sufficiently violent to render that crime a violent felony under the ACCA, and the Government waived any argument that the statute is divisible.

At the same time, Donnie’s panel held that United States v. Dixon, a 9th Circuit case holding that California robbery is not a violent felony under the ACCA’s force clause because it can be committed where force is only negligently used and because the statute is indivisible), requires a holding that California 2nd-degree robbery under Penal Code § 211 is not violent, either.

United States v. Walton, Case No. 15-50358 (9th Cir., Feb. 1, 2018)

– Thomas L. Root