USA v. Joseph Ott
Split Score
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Case Summary
Disposition
Affirmed
The Eleventh Circuit held that an attempt to commit a qualifying crime of violence is itself a crime of violence under the Sentencing Guidelines following Amendment 822, which moved the inchoate-offense language from commentary to the guideline text. Because completed New York second-degree robbery is a crime of violence, Ott’s prior conviction for attempted robbery supported the career-offender enhancement, and his 168-month sentence was therefore affirmed.
Circuit Split Identified
Legal Issue
Whether U.S.S.G. § 4B1.2’s commentary can expand the definition of a “crime of violence” or “controlled substance offense” to include inchoate offenses (attempt, conspiracy, aiding and abetting) when those offenses are not enumerated in the guideline text itself.
Circuit Positions
Guideline commentary cannot expand the text; inchoate offenses excluded unless expressly listed in § 4B1.2.
Guideline commentary is authoritative under Stinson; inchoate offenses included even if not in guideline text.
Conflict Summary
Several circuits (including the Eleventh) have held, applying Kisor v. Wilkie, that guideline commentary cannot add inchoate offenses to § 4B1.2 because the text is unambiguous, while most other circuits had earlier treated the commentary as authoritative under Stinson v. United States and therefore included attempts and conspiracies within the definition.