KING, Circuit Judge:
Appellant Rodney Jenkins pleaded guilty in the District of Maryland to distribution of crack cocaine, in contravention of 21 U.S.C. § 841(a), and being a felon in possession of a firearm, in contravention of 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1). The district court enhanced Jenkins's sentence by finding him to be a "career offender" under section 4B1.1 of the Sentencing Guidelines (the "Career Offender Enhancement"), imposing a 188-month term of imprisonment.
On January 30, 2009, Jenkins was convicted in the district court for distribution of crack cocaine and being a felon in possession of a firearm. On April 2, 2009, the probation officer filed the presentence report (the "PSR") with the court, recommending that Jenkins be deemed a career offender under the Career Offender Enhancement of the Guidelines. One of the two felony convictions underlying the PSR's career offender recommendation was Jenkins's 1998 conviction of the Maryland common law offense of resisting arrest (the "Resisting Arrest Offense").
Jenkins has filed a timely notice of appeal, and we possess jurisdiction pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 3742(a) and 28 U.S.C. § 1291.
Jenkins's sole appellate contention is that the Resisting Arrest Offense is not a "crime of violence" for purposes of the Career Offender Enhancement of the Guidelines. This contention presents a legal issue that we review de novo. See United States v. Allen, 446 F.3d 522, 527 (4th Cir.2006).
Our resolution of this appeal turns on whether our decision in United States v. Wardrick, 350 F.3d 446 (4th Cir.2003), has been undercut by the Supreme Court's subsequent decisions in Begay v. United States, 553 U.S. 137, 128 S.Ct. 1581, 170 L.Ed.2d 490 (2008), and Chambers v. United States, 555 U.S. 122, 129 S.Ct. 687, 172 L.Ed.2d 484 (2009). Before assessing Jenkins's contention that the Resisting Arrest Offense is not a crime of violence, we briefly review the principles and requirements of the Guidelines with respect to crimes of violence and career offender status.
For purposes of the Career Offender Enhancement, the Guidelines define a "crime of violence," in pertinent part, as
USSG § 4B1.2(a)(2) (2008). Because "resisting arrest" is not one of the offenses specifically enumerated in section 4B1.2(a)(2) of the Guidelines, the Resisting Arrest Offense can be a "crime of violence" only if it falls within the "otherwise involves" clause of that subsection.
Each of those three decisions—Wardrick, Begay, and Chambers—assessed whether a particular offense qualified as a "violent felony" under the Armed Career Criminal Act (the "ACCA"), and none of them directly addressed the definition of a "crime of violence" for purposes of the Career Offender Enhancement of the Guidelines.
In Begay, the Supreme Court ruled in 2008 that New Mexico's offense of driving under the influence of alcohol ("DUI") was not a violent felony under the ACCA. See 553 U.S. at 141-42, 128 S.Ct. 1581. The Court explained that the "otherwise involves" provision of the ACCA encompasses only those offenses "that are roughly similar, in kind as well as in degree of risk posed," to those offenses enumerated therein. Id. at 143, 128 S.Ct. 1581. The Court elaborated that—in addition to a comparable degree of risk—the conduct underlying the offense in question must also be comparable to the conduct required by the ACCA enumerated offenses, all of which "typically involve purposeful, violent, and aggressive conduct." Id. at 144-45, 128 S.Ct. 1581 (internal quotation marks omitted). "[B]y way of contrast," offenses that "typically do not insist on purposeful, violent, and aggressive conduct" are not roughly similar in kind to the ACCA enumerated offenses. Id. at 145, 128 S.Ct. 1581. And, more specifically, the Court pointed out that "crimes involving intentional or purposeful conduct are different than a DUI." Id. at 146, 128 S.Ct. 1581 (emphasis added). As a result, the Begay Court concluded that New Mexico's DUI offense was "simply too unlike the [enumerated] examples" to constitute a violent felony. Id. at 142, 128 S.Ct. 1581.
In Chambers, the Supreme Court further refined its analysis of the ACCA "otherwise involves" provision, assessing whether the Illinois offense of knowingly failing to report to a penal institution was a violent felony under the ACCA. See 129 S.Ct. at 690-91. The Court's 2009 ruling
Pursuant to these decisions, we must decide whether the Resisting Arrest Offense—the Maryland common law offense of resisting arrest—"involve[s] purposeful, violent, and aggressive conduct." Begay, 553 U.S. at 144-45, 128 S.Ct. 1581. In making this assessment, we utilize the familiar "categorical approach," looking only to the elements of the offense. Seay, 553 F.3d at 737. Thus, "we consider the [Resisting Arrest Offense] generically, that is to say, we examine it in terms of how the law defines [it] and not in terms of how an individual offender might have committed it on a particular occasion." Begay, 553 U.S. at 141, 128 S.Ct. 1581.
In our Wardrick decision, rendered prior to Begay and Chambers, we concluded that the Resisting Arrest Offense constitutes a "violent felony" under the ACCA. See 350 F.3d at 455. Wardrick had been convicted of two firearms offenses and was thereafter sentenced to 300 months in prison. On appeal, he contended that the district court had erroneously deemed him to be an armed career criminal under the ACCA. Id. at 448. One of the prior convictions that Wardrick challenged was for the Resisting Arrest Offense. Id. at 451. We concluded that "the district court accurately characterized Wardrick's 1988 conviction for resisting arrest as a violent felony," emphasizing that "[t]he act of resisting arrest poses a threat of direct confrontation between a police officer and the subject of the arrest, creating the potential for serious physical injury to the officer and others." Id. at 455.
In ruling against Jenkins at the sentencing hearing in this case, the district court relied primarily on our unpublished decision in Mullen, rendered after Begay and Chambers, for the proposition that Wardrick yet controls the question of whether the Resisting Arrest Offense is a "crime of violence" for purposes of the Career Offender Enhancement. See United States v. Mullen, 311 Fed.Appx. 621, 623-24 (4th Cir.2009). The Mullen defendant, who had been convicted of bank robbery and sentenced as a career offender, contended on appeal that his prior 2001 conviction for
In our Wardrick decision, we did not equivocate: "The act of resisting arrest poses a threat of direct confrontation between a police officer and the subject of the arrest, creating the potential for serious physical injury to the officer and others." 350 F.3d at 455. Our reasoning in Wardrick recognized that—unlike the offenders in Begay (New Mexico DUI) and Chambers (Illinois failure to report)—an offender convicted of resisting arrest "is significantly more likely than others to attack, or physically to resist, an apprehender, thereby producing a serious potential risk of physical injury." Chambers, 129 S.Ct. at 692 (internal quotation marks omitted). Thus, under Begay and Chambers, the Resisting Arrest Offense is not a "crime of violence" for purposes of the Career Offender Enhancement only if it can be committed either negligently or recklessly—as opposed to intentionally or purposefully.
The third element of the Resisting Arrest Offense—which requires that "the defendant resist[ ] or refuse[ ] to submit to [a lawful] arrest," Purnell v. State, 375 Md. 678, 827 A.2d 68, 78 (2003)—confirms our conclusion that a person must either intentionally or purposefully commit the Resisting Arrest Offense. In Purnell, the Court of Appeals of Maryland characterized the third element of the Resisting Arrest Offense as involving the "`intent to resist. . . lawful apprehension.'" 827 A.2d at 74 (emphasis added) (quoting Busch v. State, 289 Md. 669, 426 A.2d 954, 956 (1981)); see also Cooper v. State, 128 Md.App. 257, 737 A.2d 613, 617 (1999) (recognizing that Resisting Arrest Offense "requires proof that [defendant] intentionally" resisted (emphasis added)). Therefore, because the Resisting Arrest Offense cannot be committed negligently or recklessly, but must be committed intentionally, it qualifies as a "crime of violence" for purposes of the Career Offender Enhancement. In these circumstances, Jenkins's claim of sentencing error must be rejected.
Pursuant to the foregoing, the judgment of the district court is affirmed.
AFFIRMED
USSG § 4B1.1(a) (2008). For purposes of the Career Offender Enhancement, a "prior felony conviction" includes "a prior . . . state conviction for an offense punishable by . . . imprisonment for a term exceeding one year, regardless of whether such offense is specifically designated as a felony." Id. § 4B1.2 cmt. n. 1.
18 U.S.C. § 924(e)(2)(B)(ii). The "otherwise involves" portion of the ACCA definition of a violent felony, like its counterpart in the Guidelines, is sometimes referred to as the "residual" or "otherwise" clause.