In United States v. Jaycox, --- F.3d ---, No. 19-10077 (9th Cir. 2020), the Court vacated the defendant's sentence.
Based on the defendant’s prior conviction under
California Penal Code § 261.5(c), which criminalizes
“unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor who is more than
three years younger than the perpetrator,” the district court
applied 18 U.S.C. § 2252(b)(1), which increases the
mandatory minimum sentence from five to fifteen years if a
defendant has a prior conviction “under the laws of any State
relating to aggravated sexual abuse, sexual abuse, or abusive
sexual conduct involving a minor or ward.”
On appeal, the Court held this was error: because the minimum conduct
required for a conviction includes consensual sexual
intercourse between an individual a day shy of eighteen and
an individual who is 21 years of age, § 261.5(c) is not a
categorical match to the general federal definition of sexual
abuse of a minor. In other words, because section 261.5(c) applies to minors who can be over 16, the prohibited conduct is not necessarily abusive.
Note, section 261.5(d), which applies to minors under 16, is abusive.
