Armed Career Criminal Act

Armed Career Criminal Act of 1984
Acronyms (colloquial)	ACCA
Nicknames	Armed Career Criminal Act
Enacted by	the 98th United States Congress
Citations
Public law	98-473
Statutes at Large	98 Stat. 2185
Legislative history
	Signed into law by President Ronald Reagan on October 12, 1984;
United States Supreme Court cases
	List Taylor v. United States, 495 U.S. 575 (1990); Custis v. United States, 511 U.S. 485 (1994); Daniels v. United States, 532 U.S. 374 (2001); Shepard v. United States, 544 U.S. 13 (2005); James v. United States, 550 U.S. 192 (2007); Logan v. United States, 552 U.S. 23 (2007); Begay v. United States, 553 U.S. 137 (2008); United States v. Rodriquez, 553 U.S. 377 (2008); Chambers v. United States, 555 U.S. 122 (2009); Johnson v. United States, 559 U.S. 133 (2010); Abbott v. United States, 562 U.S. 8 (2010); McNeill v. United States, 563 U.S. 816 (2011); Sykes v. United States, 564 U.S. 1 (2011); Descamps v. United States, 570 U.S. 254 (2013); United States v. Castleman, 572 U.S. 157 (2014); Johnson v. United States, No. 13-7120, 576 U.S. ___ (2015); Welch v. United States, No. 15-6418, 578 U.S. ___ (2016); Mathis v. United States, No. 15-6092, 579 U.S. ___ (2016); Beckles v. United States, No. 15-8544, 580 U.S. ___ (2017); United States v. Stitt, No. 17-765, 586 U.S. ___ (2018); Stokeling v. United States, No. 17-5554, 586 U.S. ___ (2019); Quarles v. United States, No. 17-778, 587 U.S. ___ (2019); United States v. Davis, No. 18-431, 588 U.S. ___ (2019); Shular v. United States, No. 18-6662, 589 U.S. ___ (2020); Borden v. United States, No. 19-5410, 593 U.S. ___ (2021); Wooden v. United States, No. 20-5279, 595 U.S. ___ (2022); Brown v. United States, No. 22-6389, 602 U.S. ___ (2024); Erlinger v. United States, No. 23-370, 602 U.S. ___ (2024);

The Armed Career Criminal Act of 1984 (ACCA)^[1] is a United States federal law that provides sentence enhancements for felons who commit crimes with firearms if they are convicted of certain crimes three or more times. Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter was a key proponent for the legislation.^[2]

If a felon has three or more prior convictions for offenses that are "violent felony" offenses or "serious drug offenses,"^[3] the Act provides a minimum sentence of fifteen years imprisonment, instead of the ten-year maximum prescribed under the Gun Control Act. The Act provides for an implied maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

^ 18 U.S.C. § 924(e)
^ Rosen, Charlotte E. (2023). "The Armed Career Criminal Act and the Puzzle of Federal Crime Control in the Reagan Era: "It's at the state and local levels that problems exist"". Journal of Policy History. 35 (2): 161–194. doi:10.1017/S0898030622000288. ISSN 0898-0306. S2CID 257233598.
^ The prior convictions are referred to as "predicate" convictions: the government must prove the existence of three prior convictions as a "predicate" for the imposition of the sentence enhancement.

[1] 18 U.S.C. § 924(e)

[2] Rosen, Charlotte E. (2023). "The Armed Career Criminal Act and the Puzzle of Federal Crime Control in the Reagan Era: "It's at the state and local levels that problems exist"". Journal of Policy History. 35 (2): 161–194. doi:10.1017/S0898030622000288. ISSN 0898-0306. S2CID 257233598.

[3] The prior convictions are referred to as "predicate" convictions: the government must prove the existence of three prior convictions as a "predicate" for the imposition of the sentence enhancement.

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