Burgess v. United States

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Burgess v. United States is a United States Supreme Court case concerning the interpertation of the words "federal drug offense" in the Controlled Substances Act.

Keith Lavon Burgess was convicted in a South Carolina state court for a drug offense. Although this drug offense was punishable by more than one year, South Carolina considered it a misdemeanor, not a felony. Bugress was then convicted for another drug offense in Federal Court. At his sentencing, the judge held that the "prior conviction" statute that required a minimum twenty-year sentence applied to Burgess. This "prior conviction" statute required a minimum twenty-years jail sentence for anyone with a prior "'felony' drug conviction." In Burgess' appeal to the Court he maintained that since South Carolina considered his previos offense a misdemeanor the "prior felony drug conviction" doesn't apply to him. The Supreme Court rejected his appeal, and held that "felony" means any offense that us punishable for more than year even if another jurisdiction classifies the offense as a misdemeanor.

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