Decision date: 2024-03-20

Holding that attempted sexual battery and electronic solicitation of a minor are crimes involving moral turpitude (CIMTs). First, the Court found that the sexual battery statute is divisible and thus applied the modified categorical approach to find that all crimes encompassed under the sexual battery statue (§ 18.2-67.4(A)(i)) are sufficiently "morally reprehensible" to constitute a CIMT. Second, holding that the crime of electronic solicitation of a minor meets the mens rea requirement sufficient to establish a CIMT where the defendant "knew or should have known" that the target of the solicitation was a minor. 

Publication Status: Published

Case judge: Quattlebaum, Rushing, Wilkinson

Decision: Gomez-Ruotolo v. Garland, 96 F.4th 670 (4th Cir. 2024)