In a per curiam decision, the Ninth Circuit held that a juvenile offender has a conviction under 8 USC § 1101(a)(48)(A) if he is charged as an adult and receives the conviction after attaining the age of majority, since in that case the Federal Juvenile Delinquency Act, 18 U.S.C. §§ 5031-504, would not apply.
The court also summarily found no equal protection violation in distinguishing between juvenile offenders depending on whether they reach the age of 18 before adjudication or conviction and depending on whether the conviction is as a juvenile or adult (rather than the offender’s age at the time of the offense). The court did not even address the petitioner’s arguments, if there were any.
When this opinion was first issued in January 31, 2011, the court had held that 212(c) was not available for lack of a comparable statutory ground of inadmissibility. The court withdrew and reissued the decision, overruling the 212(c) holding based on Judalang and leaving the rest of the decision as it was.
Read the decision at http://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2012/02/13/07-72316.pdf.
