Driving Away From Cops Now a 'Violent Felony'
Horrible news for all of you criminals who already have Two Strikes and would really, really prefer not to get a third: the Supreme Court ruled yesterday that fleeing the police in a car is, by definition, a "violent felony."
Not just if you drive through chicken stalls and run buses full of elementary school students off the road—the court ruled that driving away from cops is "as a general matter a crime of violence." Even if you're doing the two mile-an-hour super-high weedhead stealth flee, apparently. From the NYT:
The decision was the court's fourth encounter since 2007 with a phrase in a federal law, the Armed Career Criminal Act. Under the law, convicted felons found with guns face a maximum sentence of 10 years. But those with three convictions for violent felonies are subject to a 15-year mandatory minimum sentence.
So if you have two convictions, just driving away gets you a mandatory 15 year sentence. Great. All the Dukes of Hazzard would be rotting in prison right now.
