West Des Moines Iowa Criminal Defense Law Blog

The idea that ballistics -- marks made on bullets and casings by the gun they are expelled from -- can be relied upon as evidence is something most of us are familiar with. We've seen it on the CSI shows. 

In order to be useful evidence, a ballistics test would need to show with great certainty that a bullet from a crime scene had to have come from a particular gun. It shouldn't serve to convict anyone unless it conveyed some certainty backed by science.

For the purposes of the federal Armed Career Criminal Act (ACCA), burglary is considered a violent felony. When someone has two or more violent felony convictions, whether state or federal crimes, they may encounter the ACCA if they are then convicted federally of unlawful firearms possession. Such a conviction carries a mandatory 15-year prison sentence.

Interestingly, the ACCA doesn't provide a definition for burglary. In 1990, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that there is a generic definition of burglary which courts should use when determining whether a particular conviction qualifies as a "strike" under the ACCA. When state statutes vary from the generic definition assumed by the ACCA, those varying elements should not be considered.

In the United States, far more people go to prison for state crimes than federal offenses, but federal charges are just as serious, if not more so. If you suspect you may be charged with a federal crime, here are a few things you need to know.

1. What counts as a federal offense?

The use of civil forfeitures has been called "policing for profit." The civil forfeiture process usually begins when someone is charged with a crime, either at the state or federal level. At that point, police and prosecutors may find that some of the defendant's money or property is connected to criminal activity. In essence, the prosecutor charges these valuables with being connected to or the proceeds of crime. The defendant bears the burden of proving that they were not. If the defendant fails to prove that, the police and prosecutor's office get to seize the money and property permanently -- even if the defendant has not yet been convicted of any crime.

It happened to an Indiana man. He was convicted of selling a small amount of heroin in an effort to support his own opioid addiction. A civil forfeiture claim was levied against his Land Rover, which was valued at $42,000, because he had briefly transported drugs in the vehicle. The SUV was worth more than four times the maximum fine for the crime he committed.