United States v. Hurell, No. 06-5653-cr (2d Cir. January 28, 2009) (Kearse, Calabresi, Sack, CJJ) (per curiam)
In each of these three consolidated cases, all government appeals, the district court held that New York convictions for burglary in the third degree or attempted burglary in the third degree were not crimes of violence as defined in the career offender provisions of the Sentencing Guidelines. Based on an intervening decision, United States v. Brown, 514 F.3d 256 (2d Cir. 2008), the court reversed.
More importantly, however, the court noted that there is a circuit split on whether burglary of a building, as opposed to a dwelling, constitutes a crime of violence under the relevant sections. The court not weigh in on the issue here, but rather called upon the Sentencing Commission resolve it, noting that the issue is of “particular significance” in the quest to avoid unwarranted sentencing disparities.
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