UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT
You may be applicable for Post Facto status if you were convicted before August 1st 2008.
2:07-CR-02119-WFN-1 Filed March 7, 2012
Before: William C. Canby, Jr., Jay S. Bybee, and
Consuelo M. Callahan, Circuit Judges.Phillip Williams George was charged with, and convicted
of, failing on September 27, 2007 to register as required under
the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act, 18 U.S.C.
§ 2250 (“SORNA”). The grand jury charged that George had
been convicted in 2003 of sexual abuse of a minor on an
Indian Reservation in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 2243(A) and
1153, and had subsequently traveled in interstate commerce
and failed to register as required by SORNA. We affirmed his
conviction. United States v. George, 625 F.3d 124 (9th Cir.
2010).Phillip Williams George was charged with, and convicted
of, failing on September 27, 2007 to register as required under
the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act, 18 U.S.C.
§ 2250 (“SORNA”). The grand jury charged that George had
been convicted in 2003 of sexual abuse of a minor on an
Indian Reservation in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 2243(A) and
1153, and had subsequently traveled in interstate commerce
and failed to register as required by SORNA. We affirmed his
conviction. United States v. George, 625 F.3d 124 (9th Cir.
2010).
Thereafter, George filed a petition for rehearing en banc
and a motion to dismiss the indictment. The motion to dismiss
was based on our opinion in United States v. Valverde, 628
F.3d 1159 (9th Cir. 2010), in which we held that the AttorneyGeneral’s February 28, 2007 interim rule applying SORNA to
sex offenders who were convicted before SORNA’s enactment
was invalid and that SORNA did not become applicable
to such individuals until August 1, 2008. Id. at 1160. The
motion to dismiss was held in abeyance pending the Government’s
petition for a writ of certiorari from Valverde.The Supreme Court has now denied the Government’s petition
from Valverde. Accordingly, as George was charged with
violating SORNA on September 27, 2007, at a time when we
have determined SORNA was not applicable to persons such
as George, his motion to dismiss must be granted.
We hereby grant the motion to dismiss, vacate our prior
opinion, and remand this matter to the district court with
directions to dismiss the indictment against George. This
action renders the petition for rehearing en banc moot.
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