United States Court of Appeals For the Seventh Circuit ____________________ No. 20-2261 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. ELSTON STEVENSON, Defendant-Appellant. ____________________

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division. No. 1:18-cr-00116-1 — John J. Tharp, Jr., Judge. ____________________

ARGUED MARCH 30, 2021 — DECIDED SEPTEMBER 8, 2021 ____________________

Before KANNE, BRENNAN, and SCUDDER, Circuit Judges. BRENNAN, Circuit Judge. Elston Stevenson possessed a fire- arm as a felon, and as an armed career criminal he received an enhanced sentence. In the district court and on appeal, he challenges whether, given that state officials sent him a resto- ration of rights letter, two of his prior Illinois state convictions could support that enhancement. The district court concluded that Stevenson did not establish by a preponderance of the 2 No. 20-2261 evidence that the letter in question pertained to those predi- cate convictions. That court did not clearly err, so we affirm. I On November 22, 2017, mourners gathered at a funeral at a cemetery in Evergreen Park, Illinois. During the burial, Ste- venson drew a revolver and fired one shot into the grave. He then waved the gun towards the crowd and fled. Soon after, police officers arrested Stevenson and recovered the gun, which was discarded nearby. A grand jury indicted Steven- son with one count of possession of a firearm by a felon, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 922(g)(1) and 924(e), to which Steven- son pleaded guilty. A. Presentencing Phase The presentencing phase of Stevenson’s case was conten- tious. In the presentence investigation report, the probation department concluded that Stevenson should receive an en- hanced sentence under the Armed Career Criminal Act (ACCA), 18 U.S.C. § 924(e), based on three of his prior Illinois state convictions: 1. 1989 conviction for attempted murder; 2. 1989 conviction for manufacture and delivery of cocaine; and 3. 2010 conviction for robbery. With a total offense level of 30 and a criminal history category of IV, the probation office recommended a guidelines range of 135 to 168 months’ imprisonment. But because Stevenson qualified as an armed career criminal—warranting a mini- mum 15-year sentence—the probation office recommended 180 months’ imprisonment. No. 20-2261 3

Stevenson disagreed with the sentencing recommenda- tion. In two memoranda he challenged the validity of his two 1989 convictions as ACCA predicates. Stevenson claimed he received a letter restoring his civil rights from the Illinois De- partment of Corrections (IDOC) discharging him from his 1989 convictions. The government pushed back, relying on an affidavit from Kevin Heard, a computer programmer for IDOC from 1988 to 2010. Heard averred “the restoration-of-rights discharge let- ters were generated when an offender ‘completed the term of parole.’” A defendant’s movement history would indicate whether a discharge letter had been generated. The entry “Pa- role Out” indicated that the offender was released and placed on parole; “Discharge Out” meant that the offender was out- side of IDOC’s legal jurisdiction. An offender is discharged out when he completes his term of parole. Illinois’s offender tracking system also kept a “mittimus”—a type of transcript of an offender’s convictions and sentences—which contained the terms of imprisonment and parole. The government ar- gued that if IDOC had sent a restoration letter, that would have been not