In U.S. v. Ortiz-Delgado, No. 05-15466 (June 7, 2006), the Court affirmed treating a defendant’s prior California convictions for attempted lewd acts upon a child and for lewd acts upon a child as "crimes of violence" for purposes of imposing a 16-level sentence enhancement on a defendant convicted of illegal re-entry.
Noting that such crimes involve psychological injury, and the inherent risk of injury to a child of such crimes, the Court sided with all other circuits to have considered the issue.
The Court also rejected Ortiz-Delgado’s challenge to the reasonableness of his sentence. Ortiz-Delgado argued that he re-entered the United States to support a child that was living there. But the Court affirmed the district court’s reasoning that, as a repeat child sex offender, Ortiz-Delgado’s punishment should be sufficient to protect society.
