Logan v. United States
Logan was convicted of being a "felon in possession of a firearm," a federal crime. Logan had four prior state convictions: one for a drug offense and three battery convictions. Relying on the drug and battery convictions, the district court sentenced Logan to fifteen years in prison, five more years than the ordinary maximum for his crime. The Armed Career Criminal Act (ACCA) enhances the penalty for gun-toting felons whose prior state or federal convictions include at least three violent crimes.
Logan objected to his battery convictions counting as predicate offenses because the ACCA, 18 U.S.C. § 921(a)(20), excludes from the definition of “conviction” any offense that “has been expunged, or set aside or for which a person has been pardoned or has had civil rights restored . . . unless such pardon, expungement, or restoration of civil rights expressly provides that the person may not ship, transport, possess, or receive firearms.” Logan argued that his convictions for battery did not result in the loss of his rights to vote, hold public office, or serve on juries, and thus should be treated the same as a conviction following which those rights were terminated but later restored.
The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the conviction based on the use of the word "restore" in the statute. The word “restore” means to give back something that had been taken away; it is impossible to restore something that has never been taken away or diminished. Thus, an offender whose civil rights have been neither diminished nor returned is not a person who “has had civil rights restored.”
Question Presented:
Whether the “civil rights restored” provision of 18 U.S.C. §921(a)(20) applies to a
conviction for which a defendant was not deprived of his civil rights thereby
precluding such a conviction as a predicate offense under the Armed Career
Criminal Act, 18 U.S.C. §924(e)(1)?
