ATLANTA, GA – The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit has affirmed the 204-month federal prison sentence of Samuel Storey, a Florida man convicted of possessing a firearm as a felon, after rejecting multiple constitutional and sentencing challenges, including under the Supreme Court’s 2024 Erlinger decision.
Storey pleaded guilty to violating 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1), and the district court enhanced his sentence under the Armed Career Criminal Act (ACCA) based on three prior Florida drug convictions. On appeal, Storey argued that the statute exceeded Congress’s Commerce Clause authority, violated the Second Amendment, and that the sentencing court erred under Erlinger v. United States by determining—without a jury—that his prior offenses occurred on different occasions.
The Eleventh Circuit rejected each argument:
- Commerce Clause & Second Amendment: The court held that existing circuit precedent forecloses Storey’s arguments. It reaffirmed that § 922(g)(1) is constitutional and that the U.S. Supreme Court’s decisions in Bruen and Rahimi did not overrule prior Eleventh Circuit rulings upholding the felon-in-possession statute.
- Erlinger Error: While the court acknowledged the district judge improperly made the ACCA “different occasions” finding without a jury, it deemed the error harmless. The panel concluded the years separating Storey’s three drug convictions made it “patently obvious” they occurred on separate occasions, and that no reasonable jury would find otherwise.
- Overbreadth of Prior Convictions: Storey also claimed his Florida drug offenses under Fla. Stat. § 893.13(1) were too broad to qualify as ACCA predicates due to a discrepancy in how “cocaine” is defined under state and federal law. The panel rejected this claim, citing binding Eleventh Circuit precedent (Laines, Smith) that has already upheld the use of Florida cocaine convictions under the ACCA.
Finding no reversible error, the court affirmed the conviction and sentence. The appeal was heard on the non-argument calendar by Circuit Judges Rosenbaum, Luck, and Abudu.
