Aggravated Felonies

(C)  Warning.  Caution is urged in generalizing from a judicial decision to the particular client’s case 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.[130]  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 should be used as the starting point rather than as a substitute for legal research and analysis.

[130] See Franklin v. INS, 72 F.3d 571, 572-573 (8th Cir. 1995), cert. denied, 519 U.S. 834, 117 S.Ct. 105 (1996) (refusing to adopt bright-line rule regarding classification of crimes of moral turpitude; each specific statute must be analyzed on a case-by-case basis).