United States Ninth Circuit

Defendant's conviction and sentence for failing to register under the Sex Offender Registration and Nationality Act (SORNA) are: 1) affirmed in part, as to the conviction, where Congress has authority under the Commerce Clause to compel the defendant, a convicted sex offender who traveled interstate, to register under SORNA as a sex offender; but 2) vacated and remanded in part as to the sentence, where the district court erred in sentencing defendant as a Tier III sex offender under 42 U.S.C. section16911(4) based on his prior conviction of second degree sexual abuse under Or. Rev. Stat. section 163.425, which is not a divisible statute so application of the modified categorical approach is precluded, and in applying the categorical approach, the Oregon statute is broader than the federal crime of sexual abuse. (Amended opinion)

Appellate Information

• Decided 03/17/2014
• Published 03/17/2014

Judges

• TASHIMA

Court

• United States Ninth Circuit

Counsel