Matter of Sanchez-Marin et al.

• Citation: 11 I&N Dec. 264
• Decision Date: 03 August 1965
• Docket Number: A-13350492,A-13350491,A-12807440,Interim Decision Number 1492
• Parties: MATTER OF SANCHEZ-MARIN ET AL. In Exclusion Proceedings
• Court: U.S. DOJ Board of Immigration Appeals

11 I&N Dec. 264

MATTER OF SANCHEZ-MARIN ET AL.

In Exclusion Proceedings

Interim Decision Number 1492

A-12807440

A-13350491

A-13350492

Board of Immigration Appeals

Decided by Board August 3, 1965

(1) Where an alien indicted for murder, second degree (Massachusetts), pleaded guilty to the lesser offense of manslaughter, it is reasonable to conclude from his plea of guilty that the homicide committed by him was voluntary; therefore, it is a crime involving moral turpitude even though under the Massachusetts statute no distinction is made between voluntary and involuntary manslaughter.

(2) An alien convicted under the Massachusetts statutes of accessory to mauslaughter after the fact has been convicted of a crime involving moral turpitude where the principal was found guilty of voluntary manslaughter, a crime involving moral turpitude.

EXCLUDABLE:

Act of 1952—Section 212(a) (9) [8 U.S.C. 1182(a) (9) ]—Convicted of a crime involving moral turpitude, to wit: manslaughter (first and second aliens).

Act of 1952—Section 212(a) (9) [8 U.S.C. 1182(a) (9) ]—Convicted of crime involving moral turpitude, to wit: accessory after fact, manslaughter (third alien).

Act of 1952—Section 212(a) (20) [8 U.S.C. 1182(a) (20) ]—Immigrant—no visa (all three aliens).

The records relate to a group of male natives and citizens of Cuba, the first being 22 years old and single, the second 26 years old and married, the third 22 years old and single. They were paroled into the United States under the provisions of section 212(d) (5) of the Immigration and Nationality Act on January 10, 1963, January 23, 1964, and January 23, 1964, respectively. Their parole was cancelled administratively on February 4, 1965, and they were referred to a special inquiry officer for a hearing in exclusion proceedings. The applicants entered the United States for the purpose of remaining indefinitely because they did not like the Castro regime in Cuba. They have never applied for or received an immigrant visa for permanent residence in the United States and were never previously in this country. They are excludable under section 212(a) (20) of the Immigration and Nationality Act as immigrants who at the time of application for admission were not in possession of valid unexpired immigrant visas, reentry permits, border crossing identification cards or other valid entry documents required by the Act.

On June 5, 1964, in the Superior Court for the County of Suffolk at Boston the applicants Raul Sanchez-Marin and Nemesio Mesa-Rodriguez were indicted of assaulting and beating one Merrill K. Hussey, with intent to murder him and by such assault and beating did kill and murder the said person, committed May 22, 1964, constituting the crime of murder in the second degree. On November 9, 1964, these applicants pleaded guilty to so much of the indictment as charged manslaughter. Marin was sentenced to the Massachusetts Correctional Institution for not more than 15 years and not less than 12 years and Rodriguez was sentenced to the same institution for not more than 12 years and not less than 10 years. The other applicant, Roberto Rameriz-Gonzalez, was indicted on June 5, 1964, on the charge that well knowing the other two aliens had committed murder in the second degree, did harbor, conceal, maintain and assist the other two aliens with intent that the said aliens should avoid and escape detention, arrest, trial, and punishment. On November 9, 1964, he pleaded guilty to accessory after fact to manslaughter and was sentenced to the Massachusetts Correctional Institution for not more than 5 years and not less than 3 years.

Chapter 265, section 1, Annotated Laws of Massachusetts defines murder as murder committed with deliberately premeditated malice aforethought, or with extreme atrocity or cruelty, or in the commission or attempted commission of a crime punishable with death or imprisonment for life is murder in the first degree. Murder which does not appear to be in the first degree is murder in the second degree. The legislature of Massachusetts manifestly considers murder as one kind or species of crime, the punishment of which may be more or less severe according to certain aggravating circumstances which may appear on the trial.¹ Second degree murder has been defined as an unlawful killing with malice aforethought, and malice, as used in this definition, includes every unlawful and unjustifiable motive and it may be implied from any deliberate or cruel act against another.²

Chapter 265, section 13, Annotated Laws of Massachusetts provides that whoever commits manslaughter shall be punished by imprisonment in the state prison for not more than 20 years or by a fine of not more than $1,000 and imprisonment in jail for not more than two and one-half years. The crime of manslaughter imports the taking of human life by an act not justified in law, but without malice aforethought which is necessary to constitute murder. There is a difference between the intent to kill and intent to murder; and the former may exist when one intends only such a...