New York Criminal Attorney Blog
A New York court recently issued an interesting opinion dealing with the sex offender registry, and its opinion highlights a technical question that can have significant impacts on defendants convicted of sex crimes. The question before the court had to do with a specific defendant’s status on the sex offender registry. She argued that she should be listed on the registry as a nonviolent offender, while the State argued she should be listed on the registry as a violent offender. Ultimately, the court’s decision came out in favor of the defendant, and it decided to make her status “nonviolent” on the registry in New York.
The Defendant’s Conviction
In the case before the Appellate Division, Fourth Department, the defendant appealed an order from the lower court that designated her as a “sexually violent offender.” The defendant lived in North Carolina, and while living there, she was convicted of sexual activity under the theory of aiding and abetting. She registered as a sex offender and later moved to the state of New York. She was then required, under the law, to register as a sex offender in New York.
The Board of Examiners of Sex Offenders conducted a risk assessment of the defendant to determine her level of risk for purposes of the sex offender registry. The Board did not think that the defendant needed to be labeled “sexually violent,” but the State argued that she should be designated “violent” because of a specific law, which says when a person is convicted in another state, that person should then be labeled as a sexually violent offender in the new state where they reside.
The Defendant’s Appeal
In the defendant’s appeal, she argued this designation as “sexually violent” was unfair. The actual crime for which she was convicted was nonviolent, so it did not make sense for her to be labeled violent in the New York sex offender registry.
The higher court agreed. It was enough, said the court, that the defendant would be on the sex offender registry. It was not sensible to classify her as violent if she was not, in fact, convicted of a violent crime. In fact the Court ruled that the requirement to classify her as a sexually violent offender was unconstitutional as applied to her. With that, the court appealed the lower court’s designation, and it converted the defendant’s status to nonviolent on the registry.
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