Supreme Court of California

In this case, defendant's conduct with a 12-year-old girl led to a charge that he committed a lewd act on a child under 14. In his 2007 trial, the jury acquitted him of that crime but convicted him of the lesser misdemeanor offense of simple assault. At sentencing, the trial court ordered him to register as a sex offender. The judgment of the Court of Appeals striking the registration order from defendant's conviction is reversed, where: 1) Apprendi v. New Jersey has no application to sentencing decisions in which juries played no fact-finding role at common law, and if it were required that juries always authorize sex offender residency restrictions it would interfere with their intended and effective implementation; 2) sex offender residency restrictions are not on their face so onerous, disabling, irrational, or overlord as to require a conclusion that their punitive effect overrides their regulatory purpose; and 3) there is no reason why the registration order itself should not survive, even if the residency restrictions are unenforceable.

Appellate Information

• Decided 03/02/2015
• Published 03/02/2015

Judges

• Baxter

Court

• Supreme Court of California

Counsel