High court narrows reach of law targeting career criminals

By JESSICA GRESKO
Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court is narrowing the reach of a federal law that strengthens penalties for career criminals found to illegally have a gun. The high court was ruling in the case of a man a lower court classified as a career criminal after counting the man’s burglary of 10 different public storage units on a single evening as 10 separate offenses. The high court said unanimously Monday that was an error. The man’s 10 burglary convictions should have been treated as one event rather than separate crimes when considering whether he qualified for a stiffened sentence under the federal Armed Career Criminal Act, the justices concluded. Justice Elena Kagan wrote that “Convictions arising from a single criminal episode … can count only once” under the law.