Safe Havens

(B)  Crimes of Moral Turpitude.[237]

Crimes of domestic violence may or may not be considered crimes of moral turpitude.  A domestic violence conviction may not automatically constitute a crime involving moral turpitude.  Simple battery is not a CMT.  Battery on a spouse has been held to be a crime of moral turpitude, because a special relationship of trust exists between offender and victim.  That rationale may not apply to all cases that fall within the wider domestic violence statute, since some domestic violence statutes apply not only to spouses, but also to the “former spouse, cohabitant, former cohabitant, or the mother or father of his or her child . . . .”[238]  If the immigration court’s rationale for making a non-CMT battery into a crime of moral turpitude may or may not apply under the statutory elements of the offense, it can be considered a divisible statute.  The record of conviction may not establish the exact nature of the relationship sufficient to bring the case within the CMT portion of the statute, and therefore may not establish grounds for removal.

[237] See N. Tooby, J. Rollin & J. Foster, Crimes of Moral Turpitude § 9.93 (2005).

[238] E.g., California Penal Code § 273.5.