United States v. Jorge Cisneros

Jorge Armando Cisneros appeals the district court’s decision to sentence him to a mandatory-minimum sentence of fifteen years in prison under the Armed Career Criminal Act (“ACCA”). See 18 U.S.C. § 924 (e)(1). Cisneros does not have “three previous convictions” that qualify as “a violent felony or a serious drug offense” under ACCA. Id. Accordingly, we vacate Cisneros’s sentence and remand to the district court for resentencing.

I.

Under ACCA, a defendant convicted of violating 18 U.S.C. § 922 (g) faces a fifteen-year mandatory-minimum sentence if he “has three previous convictions ... for a violent felony or a serious drug offense, or both.” Id. § 922(e)(1). ACCA defines “serious drug offense” as follows:

Id. § 924(e)(2)(A). ACCA also defines “violent felony”:

Id. § 924(e)(2)(B).

At the time the district court sentenced Cisneros, a prior conviction also qualified as a violent felony if it “otherwise involve[d] conduct that presented a serious potential risk of physical injury to another.” 18 U.S.C. § 924 (e)(2)(B)(ii). We previously relied on this “residual clause” to affirm Cisneros’s sentence. See United States v. Cisneros, 763 F.3d 1236 (9th Cir. 2014). However,…