Background
Clint Registe appealed his guilty-plea conviction and 120-month sentence for being a felon in possession of firearms in violation of Section nineteen hundred and eighty-two of Title eighteen of the United States Code, subsection one.
The court’s reasoning
The panel addressed two primary arguments. First, regarding the sentencing guidelines, the court found no abuse of discretion in the district court’s decision to impose a consecutive sentence rather than a concurrent one. The court noted the need to protect the public and Registe’s substantial criminal history involving violence and firearms. Second, the court rejected the Second Amendment challenge to the statute, stating that this claim is foreclosed by the en banc decision in United States versus Duarte.
What it means going forward
This decision reinforces the Ninth Circuit’s stance that felon-in-possession statutes are constitutional and that district courts have broad discretion to impose consecutive sentences for felons with violent histories.
Podcast (federal-narrative-summaries): Play in new window | Download