USA v. Lopez-Flores, 01-1834
Decision Date | 28 December 2001 |
Docket Number | No. 01-1834,01-1834 |
Citation | 275 F.3d 661 |
Parties | (7th Cir. 2001) United States of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Pedro Lopez-Flores, Defendant-Appellant |
Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit |
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division. No. 00 CR 911--Suzanne B. Conlon, Judge.
Barry Rand Elden, Chief of Appeals (submitted), Office of the U.S. Atty., Crim. Div., Chicago, IL, for Appellee.
Pedro Lopez-Flores, Florence, CO, Pro se.
Richard H. Parsons, Office of the Fed. Pub. Def., Peoria, IL, for Appellant.
Before Posner, Manion, and Rovner, Circuit Judges.
The defendant's lawyer has filed a motion to withdraw supported by an Anders brief; we can grant the motion if but only if there are no nonfrivolous grounds for appeal, that is, if the appeal is "groundless in light of legal principles and decisions." United States v. Eggen, 984 F.2d 848, 850 (7th Cir. 1993). All but one of the grounds discussed, and rightly asserted to be frivolous, in the Anders brief are discussed in our unpublished order issued today; this published opinion is confined to the one ground on which there is no circuit or Supreme Court precedent. But as we explained in Eggen, and should anyway be obvious, a ground of appeal can be frivolous even if there is no case on point--may be obviously frivolous because, for example, of the clarity of statutory language, or even as a matter of common sense.
The defendant received a longer sentence than he otherwise would have, because he committed the offense of conviction (being found in the United States after having been deported because of an aggravated felony conviction in 1994 for lewd acts involving children, 8 U.S.C. sec. 1326(a)) while on parole and within ten years of a previous conviction. U.S.S.G. sec.sec. 4A1.1(c), 1.1(d), 1.2(e). The indictment charged him with being found in the United States on November 7, 2000, and this was both after his parole ended and more than ten years after the previous conviction. But the district court ruled that the "found in" offense began when he reentered the United States illegally, which took place sometime before April 1999--a time when he was still on parole and within ten years of the previous conviction.
All the courts to address the question have held that at least in the case of surreptitious reentry, as in this case, the "found in" offense is first committed at the time of the reentry and continues to the time...
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...a federal agent lays hands on the person and a light bulb in the agent's head illuminates the mental sign `This guy's an illegal alien.'" Lopez-Flores held that the phrase "`found in' must have the force of `present in' rather than `discovered by the INS to be in.'" Understood as a continui......
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United States v. Orona-Ibarra
...officials obtain actual knowledge of section 1326 violation); Rodriguez – Rodriguez , 453 F.3d at 461 (same); United States v. Lopez – Flores , 275 F.3d 661, 663 (7th Cir. 2001) (“The date of discovery ... may bear on the running of the statute of limitations.”); but see United States v. Go......
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Velleff v. U.S.A, 10 C 411
..."of the clarity of statutory language, or even as a matter of common sense." Easter, 553 F.3d at 525 (quoting United States v. Lopez-Flores, 275 F.3d 661, 663 (7th Cir. 2001)); see also James v. United States, Nos. 08 C 1416, 02 CR 278, 2008 WL 2782826, at *8 (N.D. Ill. July 15, 2008) (find......
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U.S. v. Lennon
...Ruiz-Gea, 340 F.3d 1181, 1189 (10th Cir.2003); United States v. Mendez-Cruz, 329 F.3d 885, 889 (D.C.Cir.2003); United States v. Lopez-Flores, 275 F.3d 661, 663 (7th Cir.2001); United States v. Mendez-Casillas, 272 F.3d 1199, 1203-05 (9th Cir.2001); United States v. Ruelas-Arreguin, 219 F.3d......
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Commentary: Court finds argument frivolous.
...forth by McSwain. This is a very different situation than the cases the court cites as authority for its statement: U.S. v. Lopez-Flores, 275 F.3d 661 (7th Cir. 2001); and U.S. v. Morris, 2008 WL 5101636 (7th Cir., Dec. 5, In Lopez-Flores, four circuits had previously considered the argumen......