District Of Columbia § 22-2511 - Presence in a motor vehicle containing a firearm.

§ 22-2511. Presence in a motor vehicle containing a firearm.

22-2511

Repealed.

Annotations

Applicability of : Section 401 of provided that the act shall apply only to offenses committed on or after June 11, 2013.

This section was held unconstitutional in Conley v. United States, 2013 D.C. App. LEXIS 633, — A.3d — (Sept. 26, 2013). In its analysis, the District of Columbia Court of Appeals held that D.C. Code (2012) violates due process for two reasons. First, the essence of the offense is the defendant’s voluntary presence in a vehicle after he learns that it contains a firearm. Yet instead of requiring the government to prove that the defendant’s continued presence was voluntary, requires the defendant to shoulder the burden of proving, as an affirmative defense, that his presence in the vehicle was involuntary. This shifting of the burden of persuasion with respect to a critical component of the crime is incompatible with due process. But offends due process in another way. It is incompatible with due process to convict a person of a crime based on the failure to take a legally required action — a crime of omission — if he had no reason to believe he had a legal duty to act, or even that his failure to act was blameworthy. The fundamental constitutional vice of is that it criminalizes entirely innocent behavior — merely remaining in the vicinity of a firearm in a vehicle, which the average citizen would not suppose to be wrongful (let alone felonious) — without requiring the government to prove that the defendant had notice of any legal duty to behave otherwise. This is a defect that cannot be cured by interpreting the statutory language. Accordingly, the District of Columbia Court of Appeals held that is unconstitutional on its face.