NACDL - Mathis v. United States

Mathis v. United States

Brief of the National Association of Federal Defenders and the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers as Amici Curiae in Support of Petitioner.

Mathis v. United States

Case Details

Case No.: 15-6092
Jurisdiction: United States Supreme Court

Key Topics in the Case

Sentencing | Armed Career Criminal Act (ACCA) | Shepherd Documents | Statute "Means" and Statute "Elements" | Statutory Divisibility-Indivisibility | "Modified Categorical Approach" | Descamps

Documents

Mathis-v-United-States-Amicus.pdf

Prior Decision

Decision below 786 F.3d 1068 (8th Cir. May 12, 2015).

Argument(s)

Shepherd documents are not reliable indicators of whether a particular statutory alternative is a "means" or an "element." State law is a reliable and accessible indicator of statutory divisibility. In the rare case where state law is inconclusive, courts must apply a presumption of indivisibility.

Author(s)

Kara Hartzler and Vincent J. Brunkow, Federal Defenders of San Diego, Inc.; Eamon P. Joyce and Angela Zhu, Sidley Austin LLP, New York, NY; Jeffrey T. Green, NACDL, Washington, DC.