In United States v. Walton, --- F.3d ---, No. 15-50358 (9th Cir. 2018), the panel vacated the defendant's sentence, imposed under ACCA, because his prior convictions for robbery in Alabama and California did not qualify as "violent felony" predicates.
The Court bases is conclusion on a straightforward categorical approach in the context of the Supreme Court's requirement under Johnson that the “physical force” required under ACCA’s force clause must be “violent force” or “force capable of causing
physical pain or injury to another person.”
Because neither the Alabama nor California priors required that level of force, they do not qualify under ACCA.
