Montell Nellum v. United States

The United States Sentencing Guidelines subject defendants who commit “crimes of violence” to longer imprisonment. Like the U.S. Code (18 U.S.C. § 16(a)), the Sentencing Guidelines define “crime of violence” to mean an offense that “has as an element the use, attempted use, or threatened use of physical force.” U.S.S.G. § 4B1.2(a)(1). The district court increased Petitioner’s sentence based on the court’s conclusion that Petitioner committed “crimes of violence” by violating a statute that prohibits acts causing bodily harm, even though the statute does not identify physical force as an element of the offense. Resolving a question that has divided the courts of appeals and that this Court reserved in United States v. Castleman, 134 S. Ct. 1405 (2014), the Seventh Circuit affirmed on the ground that acts causing bodily harm necessarily require physical force. The question presented is: Whether conviction under a statute prohibiting acts that cause bodily harm is a “crime of violence,” even though the statute does not require physical force as an element of the offense.