Summary
recognizing the Ninth Circuit's agreement with this Court's holding in Utesch that August 1, 2008 is the effective date of SORNA as to pre-enactment sex offenders and reversing a conviction where the sex offender's interstate travel occurred in April, 2008
Summary of this case from U.S. v. TrentOpinion
No. 09-30138.
Argued and Submitted October 6, 2010.
Filed January 19, 2011.
Marcia Kay Hurd, Esquire, Assistant U.S., Eric B. Wolff, Esquire, Assistant U.S., Office of the U.S. Attorney, Billings, MT, for Plaintiff-Appellee.
Michael Donahoe, Esquire, Assistant Federal Public Defender, Federal Defenders of Montana Helena Branch Office, Helena, MT, for Defendant-Appellant.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Montana, Charles C. Lovell, Senior District Judge, Presiding. D.C. No. 6:08-CR-00009-CCL.
Before: KOZINSKI, Chief Judge, and THOMAS and M. SMITH, Circuit Judges.
MEMORANDUM
This disposition is not appropriate for publication and is not precedent except as provided by 9th Cir. R. 36-3.
The Supreme Court has held that 18 U.S.C. § 2250(a) "does not apply to sex offenders whose interstate travel occurred prior to SORNA's effective date." United States v. Begay, 622 F.3d 1187, 1195 (9th Cir. 2010) (citing Carr v. United States, ___ U.S. ___, 130 S.Ct. 2229, 2232-33, 176 L.Ed.2d 1152 (2010)). In United States v. Valverde, 628 F.3d 1159, 1167-69 (9th Cir. 2010), we held that, for persons like Dietrich who were convicted of sex offenses prior to the statute's enactment, SORNA's registration requirements became effective on August 1, 2008. This date is thirty days after the Attorney General published guidelines that accorded with the APA's requirements and announced SORNA's retroactive applicability. Id.; see 5 U.S.C. § 553; Office of the Attorney General, The National Guidelines for Sex Offender Registration and Notification, 73 Fed.Reg. 38,-030, 38, 046-47 (July 2, 2008); see also United States v. Utesch, 596 F.3d 302, 311 (6th Cir. 2010).
Dietrich's interstate movement as an un-registered sex offender concluded in April 2008, several months before SORNA's registration requirements applied to him. We therefore reverse his conviction. Carr, 130 S.Ct. at 2233.