United States v. Rickey Christian

MEMORANDUM

Ricky D. Christian appeals the district court’s denial of his successive 28 U.S.C. § 2255 motion, in which he challenged his Armed Career Criminal Act (“ACCA”)en-hanced sentence as unconstitutional under Johnson v. United States, — U.S.-, 135 S.Ct. 2551 , 192 L.Ed.2d 569 (2015). We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291 . We review de novo, United States v. Aguirre-Ganceda, 592 F.3d 1043, 1045 (9th Cir. 2010), and reverse.

The district court erred in denying relief. Christian sufficiently established and the government appears to concede that, in sentencing Christian, the district court relied at least in part on the unconstitutionally vague residual clause of the ACCA’s “violent felony” definition, 18 U.S.C. § 924 (e)(2)(B)(ii), which violates Johnson, 135 S.Ct. at 2563 . Under the categorical/modified categorical approach as clarified by the Supreme Court in Descamps v. United States, — U.S.-, 133 S.Ct. 2276 , 186 L.Ed.2d 438 (2013), Christian does not have a sufficient number of “violent felony” predicates under the enumerated-offense clause to sustain an ACCA sentence enhancement. Cf. In re Adams, 825 F.3d 1283, 1285-86 (11th Cir. 2016) (applying Descamps…