Chicago Tribune: Ruling likely to ease sentences for some local gun defendants

Teresa Auch Schultz for the Chicago Tribune reports:

A recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling will mean a number of local gun defendants will face much less time in prison, but just how many people will benefit is unknown.

In one of its final rulings issued for the term, the Supreme Court ruled on June 26 that a portion of the federal law known as the Armed Career Criminal Act violated a person’s constitutional right to due process.

The law targets criminals who have three previous violent felony convictions who are then convicted of possessing a gun as a felon, a federal crime. It mandates that they be sentenced to at least 15 years in prison and possibly up to life.

“This statute is really designed to get at the worst of the worst,” U.S. Attorney David Capp of the Northern District of Indiana said, noting that it goes after criminals with a history of serious offenses.

Read the full story at The Chicago Tribune.