Eighth Circuit adjudicates state justification law to uphold sentencing enhancement

I will never ceased to be amazed at all the state substantive criminal law that federal courts adjudicate (by a preponderance of the evidence) as part of federal guideline sentencing.  Today the Eighth Circuit has a fascinating short ruling in US v. Raglin, No. 06-3432 (8th Cir. Sept. 4, 2007) (available here) that ought to intrigue everyone in law school interested in any of a variety of criminal law issues.

The facts in Raglin read like a Crim Law exam (in fact, I’ll have to remember this case when I have an exam to write).  Undercover cops posing as drug dealers went onto the defendant’s property, though they moved to nearly public property when the defendant yelled at them.  Apparently unhappy with their continued activity, the defendant then came out of his house with a loaded gun to shoo these “drug dealers” away.  But then the cops showed their badges, chased the defendant into his house, and arrested him.  Notably, the defendant “was charged with aggravated assault in state court, but that charge was dismissed after he was indicted on this federal charge [of felon in possession of a firearm].”

I’ll make everyone read the case to see how all this becomes a federal sentencing issue (and since it is an Eighth Circuit case, you already know the outcome).  But, as a Blakely fan, I cannot help but note this case as yet another amazing example of federal judges essentially trying defendants (by a preponderance of the evidence) for unadjudicated state crimes in order to apply federal guideline enhancements.  Personally, I really don’t think Raglin is what the Framers had in mind when they created a system of limited federal government and wrote detailed criminal procedural rights in the first Eight Amendments.