U.S. v. Caron, 94-2026
| Decision Date | 01 May 1995 |
| Docket Number | No. 94-2026,94-2026 |
| Parties | UNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. Gerald R. CARON, Defendant, Appellant. . Heard |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — First Circuit |
Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts; Hon. William G. Young, U.S. District Judge.
Owen S. Walker, Federal Public Defender, for appellant.
Timothy Q. Feeley, Assistant U.S. Attorney, Brian T. Kelly, Assistant U.S. Attorney, Donald K. Stern, United States Attorney, for appellee.
Before TORRUELLA, Chief Judge, COFFIN, Senior Circuit Judge, SELYA, CYR, BOUDIN, STAHL, and LYNCH, Circuit Judges, En Banc.
Appellant Gerald R. Caron was convicted of possessing rifles, shotguns and ammunition in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1), the "felon-in-possession" law. Because at least three of Caron's five predicate felony convictions were for crimes of violence, he was subject to sentence enhancement under the Armed Career Criminal Act ("ACCA"), 18 U.S.C. § 924(e)(1). Caron received a prison term of 21 years, 10 months, plus a five year term of supervised release. See U.S.S.G. § 4B1.4.
The issue in this case is whether three prior Massachusetts convictions should not be counted as predicate crimes under 18 U.S.C. § 921(a)(20), which excludes as predicates
[a]ny conviction which has been expunged, or set aside or for which a person has been pardoned or has had civil rights restored ... unless such pardon, expungement, or restoration of civil rights expressly provides that the person may not ship, transport, possess, or receive firearms.
The questions we must address relate to the words preceding "unless," and, in particular, the procedure by which one "has had civil rights restored." Under Massachusetts laws of general application, two of Caron's basic civil rights were restored automatically after a lapse of time or at the expiration of his sentence; the remaining one was never taken away from him.
In an earlier stage of this case, United States v. Caron, 64 F.3d 713, 718 (1st Cir.1995), a panel of this court, deeming itself The government, after having filed a brief urging adoption of the panel's position, notified us that it was no longer defining the restoration of civil rights to exclude automatic affirmative actions based on generic statutes. It nevertheless did not retreat from its insistence that some affirmative action was required to "restore" such rights. And it did not withdraw its fallback contentions that Massachusetts statutes do not fully restore the civil rights of convicted felons and, in any event, expressly restrict their rights to possess firearms. Notwithstanding the government's change of position, which was unexplained, we must arrive at our own independent judgment.
bound to follow United States v. Ramos, 961 F.2d 1003 (1st Cir.1992), held that the requirements of § 921(a)(20) can be met only by "focused, individualized, affirmative action," not by laws of general or automatic application. We subsequently decided to reconsider this holding en banc, allowed the panel opinion to remain in effect as to the other issues decided, and asked for briefing on one additional issue: whether, as the Ramos panel reasoned (regarding misdemeanors), § 921(a)(20) cannot be satisfied where civil rights are not lost as a collateral consequence of conviction, since there is "no individualized official judgment" evidencing the state's "renewed trust" in the individual. Ramos, 961 F.2d at 1009
After due deliberation, we now hold, in accordance with our seven sister circuits, 1 that civil rights may be restored within the meaning of § 921(a)(20) by laws of general application. We also hold that, at least where some civil rights are restored by the operation of such laws, the fact that one civil right was never lost does not prevent an individual from having "had civil rights restored" within the meaning of the provision.
We briefly set forth the relevant facts. On two occasions in 1993, rifles, shotguns and ammunition were seized from Caron. At the time of his arrest, his criminal record included three Massachusetts felony convictions (1958, 1959, and 1963), a California felony conviction (1970), and a federal firearms felony conviction (1977). All four state convictions constituted violent crimes which could serve as predicates under the ACCA. See 18 U.S.C. § 924(e)(2)(B).
"Civil rights," within the meaning of § 921(a)(20), have been generally agreed to comprise the right to vote, the right to seek and hold public office, and the right to serve on a jury. United States v. Cassidy, 899 F.2d 543, 549 (6th Cir.1990). As an initial matter, therefore, we recount the relevant Massachusetts laws corresponding to these rights.
A convicted felon in Massachusetts does not lose the right to vote. See Mass.Gen.L. ch. 54, §§ 86, 103B. He does, however, lose the right to hold public office while serving his sentence. Mass.Gen.L. ch. 279, § 30. And, a felon is disqualified from juror service until seven years from his conviction. Mass.Gen.L. ch. 234A, § 4. However, even after seven years, a judge can remove one from a jury panel solely on the basis of a prior felony conviction. Mass.Gen.L. ch. 234, § 8.
Clearly, the Massachusetts scheme neither provides for "individualized, affirmative actions" nor for complete "restoration," as the right to vote is never removed. Ramos, therefore, on both fronts, would mandate that Caron's Massachusetts convictions count for purposes of the ACCA. Now, sitting en banc, we revisit the question whether we should depart from the positions we took in Ramos.
We approach the task of statutory interpretation with the following guideline foremost in mind So long as the statutory language is reasonably definite, that language must ordinarily be regarded as conclusive (at least in the absence of an unmistakable legislative intent to the contrary).
United States v. Charles George Trucking Co., 823 F.2d 685, 688 (1st Cir.1987) (citations omitted).
The key words of 18 U.S.C. § 921(a)(20) are "expunged," "set aside," "pardoned," and "civil rights restored." All of the words signify a result: strike out, efface, eliminate (expunge); dismiss, discard, annul (set aside); excuse an offense without punishment, release an offender from punishment (pardon); bring back to an original state or condition (restore). 2 They do not address the means by which the results may be accomplished or, consequently, indicate preference for any particular means.
In Ramos, our panel assumed that pardons, expungements and restorations of rights all involved individualized official judgments and procedures. 961 F.2d at 1010. But the wide variety of practices adopted by states has since been pointed out. In United States v. Glaser, 14 F.3d 1213, 1218 (7th Cir.1994), the court noted that "[n]either pardons nor expungements are necessarily individualized," citing mass pardons by both Presidents Jefferson and Carter, and federal and state laws providing for "routine expungement" of convictions for juvenile offenses.
In McGrath v. United States, 60 F.3d 1005, 1008 (2d Cir.1995), the court recognized that "many states restore civil rights to convicted felons by means of a general law stating that all rights shall be reinstated upon the service of a sentence." It also noted that other states authorize officials to issue certificates of restoration after a given period of time following sentence or parole, while a minority of states "restore rights in piecemeal fashion," and twelve states apparently have no provision regarding restoration of civil rights.
Perhaps even more significantly, in Dickerson v. New Banner Inst., Inc., 460 U.S. 103, 103 S.Ct. 986, 74 L.Ed.2d 845 (1983), the Supreme Court recognized the diversity of state post-conviction actions such as expungement. It noted that over half the states had enacted such statutes and that they varied "in almost every particular," ranging from applicability only to young offenders or certain offenses to automatic expunction, and amounted to "nothing less than a national patchwork." Id. at 121-22, 103 S.Ct. at 996. The Court reasoned that the purpose of the federal firearms statute "would be frustrated by a ruling that gave effect to state expunctions," id. at 119, 103 S.Ct. at 995, and reversed a lower court ruling that had given full effect to a state expungement following a successfully served period of probation. 3
Congressional reaction to Dickerson in large part accounted for the crafting of § 921(a)(20), which expressly allowed state law to define a predicate conviction for purposes of the federal firearms laws. 4 See McGrath, 60 F.3d at 1009. In interpreting § 921(a)(20), therefore, we take into account not only the diversity of state approaches to the restoration of civil rights of convicted felons but also the clearly manifested purpose of Congress to defer to state laws, in this context, in determining predicate convictions and the removal of firearm disqualifications. As the Court stated in Dickerson, "[a]s in all cases of statutory construction, our task is to interpret the words of [the statute] in light of the purposes Congress sought to serve." 460 U.S. at 118, 103 S.Ct at 995 (quoting Chapman v. Houston Welfare Rights Org., 441 U.S. 600, 608, 99 S.Ct. 1905, 1911, 60 L.Ed.2d 508 (1979)).
In light of this background, we discern no basis for reading into the words at issue any gloss based on assumed frequency of use or primacy of meaning. And, we hesitate to impose a qualification upon these words absent some textual indication that such limitation is warranted. 5 Accordingly, we conclude that the plain language of § 921(a)(20) makes clear that the restoration of civil rights need not be focused or individualized.
From our present perspective, therefore, we see...
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