{"id":1619,"date":"2017-02-12T03:23:33","date_gmt":"2017-02-12T03:23:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sentencing.net\/?p=1619"},"modified":"2019-11-08T16:26:39","modified_gmt":"2019-11-08T21:26:39","slug":"career-offender-texas-drug-prior","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sentencing.net\/sentencing\/career-offender-texas-drug-prior","title":{"rendered":"Career Offender Enhancement Cannot Be Based On Texas Possession With Intent To Distribute Conviction"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n<p><strong><em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ca5.uscourts.gov\/opinions\/pub\/15\/15-11078-CR0.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">United States v. Tanksley<\/a> &#8211; Career Offender Enhancement <\/em><\/strong>\u00a0: Dantana Tanksley was previously convicted in Texas under Section 481.112(a) of the Texas controlled substances act of possessing with intent to distribute a controlled substance. He was later enhanced as a career offender under federal <a href=\"https:\/\/sentencing.net\/sentencing\/sentencing-guidelines-meaning\">sentencing guidelines<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n<p>Under the federal sentencing guidelines, an individual can be enhanced as a career offender if the person has two or more prior convictions that are controlled substance offenses or &#8220;crimes of violence.&#8221; The sentencing guidelines define the term &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/sentencing.net\/sentencing\/oregon-drug-delivery-ineligible\">controlled substance offense<\/a>&#8221; by looking at what constitutes a federal controlled substance offense. If the elements of a state prior conviction are broader than federal controlled substance laws, the prior conviction will not qualify the person as a career offender. The federal career offender enhancement, if applicable, greatly increases an individual&#8217;s sentence.<\/p>\r\n<p>The Fifth Circuit held that application of the career offender enhancement in Tanksley\u2019s case was improper because the Texas offense of possession with intent to distribute is broader than a generic federal substance offense. This is because Texas law defines \u201cdelivery\u201d as including an \u201coffer to sell\u201d drugs. Federal law does not prohibit an \u201coffer to sell.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p>The court was barred from looking at the indictment, plea papers, or actual conduct associated with Tanksley\u2019s Texas prior because of the Supreme Court\u2019s recent decision in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.supremecourt.gov\/opinions\/15pdf\/15-6092_1an2.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Mathis v. United States<\/a>, 136 S.Ct. 2243 (2016). <em>Mathis<\/em>\u00a0clarified application of the categorical and modified categorical approaches.<\/p>\r\n<p>\u201cBecause the modified categorical approach is inappropriate in this case, we cannot use it to \u2018narrow\u2019 Tanksley&#8217;s conviction to \u2018possession with intent to deliver\u2019 a controlled substance. We instead look to Section 481.112(a) as a whole in determining whether his conviction thereunder qualifies as a controlled substance offense under the Guidelines. Section 481.112(a) \u2018criminalizes a greater swath of conduct than the elements of the relevant Guidelines offense.\u2019\u201d The case was remanded for resentencing. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ca5.uscourts.gov\/opinions\/pub\/15\/15-11078-CR0.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">United States v. Tanksley<\/a>, No. 15-11078\u00a0(5<sup>th<\/sup> Cir. 2017).<\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>United States v. Tanksley &#8211; Career Offender Enhancement \u00a0: Dantana Tanksley was previously convicted in Texas under Section 481.112(a) of the Texas controlled substances act of possessing with intent to distribute a controlled substance. He was later enhanced as a career offender under federal sentencing guidelines. Under the federal sentencing guidelines, an individual can be&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1620,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[314],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Career Offender Enhancement | Controlled Substance Act<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Career offender(s) with Texas possession with intent to deliver prior convictions have received a big break in Tanksley decision of controlled substance\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sentencing.net\/sentencing\/career-offender-texas-drug-prior\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" 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