Cite as: 506 U. S. 20 (1992)
Opinion of the Court
See, e. g., State v. Elling, 11 Ohio Misc. 2d 13, 15, 463 N. E. 2d 668, 670 (Com. Pl. 1983) (challenge to allegedly uncounseled conviction); State v. Hennings, 100 Wash. 2d 379, 382, 670 P. 2d 256, 257 (1983) (challenge to guilty plea). Others assign the entire burden to the defendant once the government has established the fact of conviction. See, e. g., People v. Harris, 61 N. Y. 2d 9, 15, 459 N. E. 2d 170, 172 (1983) (guilty plea); see also D. C. Code Ann. § 23-111(c)(2) (1989); N. C. Gen. Stat. § 15A-980(c) (1988). Several, like Kentucky, take a middle position that requires the defendant to produce evidence of invalidity once the fact of conviction is proved but that shifts the burden back to the prosecution once the defendant satisfies his burden of production. See, e. g., Watkins v. People, 655 P. 2d 834, 837 (Colo. 1982) (guilty plea); State v. O'Neil, 91 N. M. 727, 729, 580 P. 2d 495, 497 (Ct. App. 1978) (uncounseled conviction); State v. Triptow, 770 P. 2d 146, 149 (Utah 1989) (same). This range of contemporary state practice certainly does not suggest that allocating some burden to the defendant is fundamentally unfair.
Interpretations of analogous federal laws by the Courts of Appeals point even more strongly away from respondent's position. Under the Armed Career Criminal Act, 18 U. S. C. § 924(e), Courts of Appeals have placed on the defendant the entire burden of proving the invalidity of a prior conviction based on a guilty plea. See, e. g., United States v. Gallman, 907 F. 2d 639, 643-645 (CA7 1990), cert. denied, 499 U. S. 908 (1991); accord, United States v. Paleo, 967 F. 2d 7, 13 (CA1 1992); United States v. Day, 949 F. 2d 973, 982-983 (CA8 1991); United States v. Ruo, 943 F. 2d 1274, 1276 (CA11 1991). Courts of Appeals have also allocated the full burden of proof to defendants claiming that an invalid guilty plea renders a prior conviction unavailable for purposes of calculating criminal history under the Sentencing Guidelines. See, e. g., United States v. Boyer, 931 F. 2d 1201, 1204-1205 (CA7), cert. denied, 502 U. S. 873 (1991). And the text of the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act of 1970
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