Sentencing commissioners hear split views on replacing categorical career-offender test with conduct-based approach

At a public hearing convened by the United States Sentencing Commission, commissioners heard extensive testimony about a proposed rewrite of the career-offender guideline that would move the rule away from the traditional categorical approach and toward a conduct-based framework focusing on whether a defendant engaged in violent conduct.

Advocates of the change, including Judge Edmund S. Chang, chair of the Judicial Conference Criminal Law Committee, told the commission the categorical approach has produced extensive litigation and inconsistent outcomes across states. "We welcome this change to a focus on real world facts," Judge Chang said, arguing a prima facie gateway tied to Shepard documents would limit litigation to the cases most likely to involve violent conduct. He and other judges said limiting prior drug-trafficking predicates to federal offenses would reduce anomalous career-offender applications for defendants with…