Criminal – Career offender status

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Where a Massachusetts defendant has been sentenced as a career offender in light of (1) his adjudication of delinquency as a youthful offender in juvenile court for an armed assault and robbery with a deadly weapon which he committed at the age of 15 and (2) his conviction in adult court for an assault and battery with a dangerous weapon which he committed when he was 17, we hold that the sentence must be vacated and a remand ordered for resentencing.

            We so decide because “Massachusetts has ‘classified’ ‘youthful offender’ adjudications differently from ‘adult convictions,’ and [the defendant’s] adjudication is not a career offender predicate.”

            United States v. McGhee (Lawyers Weekly No. 01-147-11) (12 pages) (Boudin, J.) (1st Circuit) Appealed from a judgment entered by Woodlock, J., in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts. J. Martin Richey on supplemental brief for the appellant; Nina Goodman , Carmen Milagros Ortiz, Timothy E. Moran, Lanny A. Breuer and Greg D. Andres on supplemental brief for the appellee (Docket No. 09-1322) (June 22, 2011).

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