§
B.1 Introduction
The
Crime Case Index takes all decisions of all courts defining
whether a given criminal conviction is, or is not, an
aggravated felony, and organizes them according to:
First,
the general category of offense (i.e., Sex Offenses, Crimes
Against Property, etc.);
Second,
the common name of the specific crime of conviction, in
alphabetical order (i.e., Robbery, Stalking, Threats);
Third,
the jurisdiction in which the case arose (i.e., Ninth
Circuit, Lower Courts in the Ninth Circuit, BIA); and
Fourth,
reverse chronological order.
Some
of these labels are the same as certain aggravated felony
"categories," e.g., "Murder" or "Burglary,"
which are indexed in the Category Case Index. This is
a coincidence: remember that the labels contained in the
Crime Case Index refer to the nature of the criminal conviction
involved in the case, rather than the possibly similar
label given to the aggravated felony category to which
it is being compared. After the initial heading, giving
the name of the crime, we give the name of the aggravated
felony category under consideration. For example, if the
heading is "BURGLARY – CRIME OF VIOLENCE," that
indicates that the case discusses whether a burglary conviction
falls within the "crime of violence" aggravated
felony category.
The
Capsule Summaries include the following information: citation,
exact date (month, day, and year) of the decision, and
a parenthetical identifying the jurisdiction and statute
of conviction (if reflected in the decision), the aggravated
felony category under consideration, the final holding
(is or is not an aggravated felony), and the purpose for
which the court conducted the inquiry (e.g., removal purposes,
sentence enhancement of illegal re-entry sentence, etc.).
On occasion, relevant case history, and some of the court’s
reasoning, is also included.
Warning.
Caution is urged in generalizing from a decision cited
here to the particular client’s case you may have under
consideration. The result may differ for a number of reasons.
The elements of the offense, as defined by the statute,
may differ between the two cases, even though they involve
the same type of crime. Each individual statute must be
examined. Even if the statute is identical, it may have
been amended between the two convictions, or judicial
decisions of the jurisdiction of conviction may have altered
the elements required for conviction of the offense in
the interim. The law governing the rules to be applied
in determining whether a given conviction triggers certain
immigration consequences may have changed between the
dates of the two convictions. The courts may have altered
the rules for determining whether a conviction involves
an aggravated felony. The record of conviction in one
case may be different from the record in another. The
judicial decision may be interpreting "aggravated
felony" under a legal provision with a different
aggravated felony from the context in which the particular
client’s case arises. Therefore, the cases collected here
should be used as the starting point rather than as a
substitute for legal research and analysis.
