US v. Bennett, No. 06-1167 holds that the Armed Career Criminal Act ("ACCA"), 18 U.S.C. § 924(e) applies to “generic burglary” of a “steel storage shed” because it is a violent felony based on the Supreme Court’s view in United States v. Taylor, 495 U.S. 575 (1990) that burglary is whatever the consensus of the states is. In this case, the predicate offense was R.I. Gen. Laws § 11-8-5 ("Breaking and entering other buildings with criminal intent - Railroad cars - Tractor trailers."), but the plea colloquy indicated that he was convicted of breaking into "other buildings.” The First rejects the view that the building be “occupiable,” because the Rhode Island statute does not encompass really small structure. The claim that his entry was no unlawful or unprivileged is tossed on plain error review.
Claims that a jury must determine his prior conviction are rejected (because of United States v. Bishop, 453 F.3d 30, 32 (1st Cir. 2006) (our coverage here)), as are claims that the government needed to plead and prove the ACCA enchantments, because the Supreme Court doesn’t treat recidivitism as an element of the offense under Almendarez-Torres v. United States, 523 U.S. 224, 239 (1998).
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