In Garcia, the defendant's conviction for illegal reentry into the U.S. was affirmed where the district court did not abuse its discretion in failing to dismiss the indictment on statute of limitations grounds. However, the sentence was reversed, because the district court committed error by enhancing defendant's sentence based on his conviction for aggravated assault under Arizona law where the Arizona statute did not require mens rea higher than recklessness. Judge Martin, writing for the court, stated
By this argument, the government underestimates the talents and the industry of district judges. A 16-level enhancement under § 2L1.2 frequently corresponds to a Guidelines range that is higher by years than it otherwise would have been. Our courts are neither so indolent nor so divorced from this Nation’s foundational principles to jail people for years longer, only because it would be easier to blindly defer to the definitional “vagaries of state law.". . . .
Both in the context of 18 U.S.C. § 16 and the almost identically worded definition of “crime of violence” under § 2L1.2 of the Guidelines, these courts have held that crimes with a mens rea of recklessness are not “crimes of violence.”-RCS
