Richard Leigh Adams v. United States

Appellant was convicted of a violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1407 , which provides that no citizen of the United States “who has been convicted of a violation of any of the narcotic or marihuana laws of the United States, or of any State thereof, the penalty for which is imprisonment for more than one year, shall depart from or enter into or attempt to depart from or enter into the United States, unless such person registers, under such rules and regulations as may be prescribed by the Secretary of the Treasury with a customs official, agent, or employee at a point of entry or a border customs station”.

It was proved that appellant departed from the United States into Mexico on May 6, 1960, without registering. It was also proved that on October 9, 1953, appellant, then 20 years of age, had been found guilty in the Superior Court of the State of California, City and County of San Francisco, of being in possession of marihuana in violation of Section 11500 of the California Health and Safety Code. The penalty for such a conviction was imprisonment in the county jail for not more than one year, or in the state prison for not more than ten years. (California Health and Safety Code, §…