The Ninth Circuit has determined that a Hawaii conviction for first-degree unlawful imprisonment is a crime involving moral turpitude. The statute requires, at a minimum, that the defendant knowingly restrain another person under circumstances that the defendant knows will expose the person to a risk of serious bodily injury. The court concluded that the combination of the harm and state of mind required by the Hawaii statute results in conduct that is morally turpitudinous. “Even though the offense required a state of mind of only recklessness, we found that the creation of a substantial, actual risk of imminent death is sufficiently reprehensible” to establish a CIMT.’” The court also noted that both the Board of Immigration Appeals and the iInth Circuit “have been unable to establish any coherent criteria for determining which crimes fall within that classification and which crimes do not.”
The full text of Fugow v. Barr can be found here:
http://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2019/11/18/16-70918.pdf