Krstic

FOR PUBLICATION

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,  No. 08-30022 Plaintiff-Appellant, v.  D.C. No.

CR-07-00047-BR

MILENKO KRSTIC,

OPINION

Defendant-Appellee.  Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Oregon Anna J. Brown, District Judge, Presiding

Argued and Submitted December 8, 2008—Portland, Oregon

Filed March 10, 2009

Before: Diarmuid F. O’Scannlain, Susan P. Graber, and Jay S. Bybee, Circuit Judges.

Opinion by Judge O’Scannlain

3025 3028 UNITED STATES v. KRSTIC

COUNSEL

David L. Atkinson, Assistant United States Attorney, Port- land, Oregon, argued the cause for the plaintiff-appellant and filed the briefs. Karin J. Immergut, United States Attorney, District of Oregon, was on the briefs.

Christopher J. Schatz, Assistant Federal Public Defender, Portland, Oregon, argued the cause for the defendant-appellee and filed the brief. UNITED STATES v. KRSTIC 3029

OPINION

O’SCANNLAIN, Circuit Judge:

We are confronted with a thorny question of statutory inter- pretation to discern whether an alien may be prosecuted for…