Safe Havens

(B)  Crimes of Moral Turpitude.[280]

Statutory rape has been held to be a crime of moral turpitude.  The State Department, in the context of consular processing, has stated: “By statute, a person may be convicted of statutory rape even though the female consents and provided she is under the statutory age at the time of the commission of the act.  ‘Statutory rape’ is also deemed to involve moral turpitude.’”[281]

The conclusion that consensual intercourse between minors or an adult and a minor constitutes a CMT has been criticized.  In Marciano v. INS,[282] for example, the Eighth Circuit held that a noncitizen’s state law conviction for statutory rape was a “crime involving moral turpitude” subjecting him to deportation, even though the conduct at issue would not have been criminal in more than half of the states.[283]

[280] See N. Tooby, J. Rollin & J. Foster, Crimes of Moral Turpitude § 9.105 (2005).

[281] 9 U.S. Dep’t of State, Foreign Affairs Manual (FAM) § 40.21(a) N.2.3-3(a)(15).

[282] Marciano v. INS, 450 F.2d 1022 (8th Cir. 1971), cert. den., 405 U.S. 997, 92 S.Ct. 1260 (1972).

[283] See id., at 1024, 1026.