Hernandez-Rojas
United States v. Hernandez-Rojas
Opinion
Lead Opinion
MEMORANDUM **
Sergio Hernandez-Rojas appeals the sentence imposed following his guilty plea *604 to being a deported alien found in the United States in violation of 8 U.S.C. § 1326 .
Hernandez-Rojas contends that the district court erred in sentencing him pursuant to 8 U.S.C. § 1326 (b) to more than the two-year maximum set forth in 8 U.S.C. § 1326 (a), when he did not admit and a jury did not find any prior convictions. He argues that the avoidance-of-eonstitutional-doubt doctrine requires that Almendarez-Torres v. United States, 523 U.S. 224 , 118 S.Ct. 1219 , 140 L.Ed.2d 350 (1998), be limited to the holding that a prior conviction that increases the maximum penalty need not be alleged in the indictment when the prior conviction, unlike here, is admitted as part of a guilty plea. He also contends that Ninth Circuit authority is in conflict with recent Supreme Court decisions limiting the holding of Almendarez-Torres . Hernandez-Rojas further argues that in light of Apprendi v. New Jersey, 530 U.S. 466 , 120 S.Ct. 2348 , 147 L.Ed.2d 435 (2000), and subsequent Supreme Court decisions, Almendarez-Torres has been overruled and § 1326(b) is unconstitutional.