USCA11 Case: 19-12622 Date Filed: 12/18/2020 Page: 1 of 12 [PUBLISH] IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT ________________________ No. 19-12622 ________________________ Agency No. A034-291-493 MICHAEL ROY SMITH, Petitioner, versus U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL, Respondent. ________________________ Petition for Review of a Decision of the Board of Immigration Appeals _______________________ (December 18, 2020) Before WILLIAM PRYOR, Chief Judge, HULL and MARCUS, Circuit Judges. MARCUS, Circuit Judge: At issue today in this removal proceeding is whether vehicular homicide in Florida is a crime of moral turpitude. The Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA”) held that it is and ordered the petitioner, Michael Roy Smith, removed from the USCA11 Case: 19-12622 Date Filed: 12/18/2020 Page: 2 of 12 United States because he has been convicted of two or more crimes of moral turpitude, pursuant to 8 U.S.C. § 1227(a)(2)(A)(ii). We agree and, therefore, deny the petition. I. Michael Smith, a Jamaican citizen, entered the United States in November 1973, at the age of 12 as a lawful permanent resident. Beginning in 1979, he acquired a criminal record including convictions for shoplifting, trespassing, and a probation violation arising out of an aggravated assault. The government commenced removal proceedings against Smith after a Palm Beach County jury found him guilty of three counts of vehicular homicide. Under the Immigration and Nationality Act, “[a]ny alien who at any time after admission is convicted of two or more crimes involving moral turpitude, not arising out of a single scheme of criminal misconduct, . . . is deportable.” 8 U.S.C. § 1227(a)(2)(A)(ii). The government asserted that Smith had two qualifying convictions: his vehicular-homicide convictions, and a 1988 conviction for aggravated assault. Smith’s vehicular homicide convictions arose out of a January 2006 automobile accident when Smith struck and killed a mother and two of her daughters, while seriously injuring a third. After a jury trial, Smith was acquitted of three counts of driving-under-the-influence manslaughter, but was found guilty of three counts of vehicular homicide in violation of Fla. Stat. § 782.071. Thereafter, 2 USCA11 Case: 19-12622 Date Filed: 12/18/2020 Page: 3 of 12 Smith was sentenced to twenty-one-and-a-half years in prison on each count, the sentences to run concurrently with each other. At a hearing before the Immigration Judge (“IJ”), Smith was asked about the facts surrounding his vehicular homicide convictions. While the state had charged Smith with driving under the influence of a controlled substance at the time of the accident, Smith denied having used marijuana on the day in question, claiming instead that traces of the drug, which had been found in his system, were the result of using marijuana two weeks earlier. He sought to downplay the severity of his vehicular-homicide offenses, claiming that, although he killed three people by running a red light, “it was not like I was swerving all over the place.” Smith similarly tried to disclaim the aggravated-assault conviction at the immigration hearing; that conviction had been associated with the alias “Patrick Smith.” But Smith then recanted after the government ...
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