United States Eighth Circuit

Defendant's sentence for failing to register as required by the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA) is affirmed in part where: 1) the court questioned whether defendant's self-reported manic-depressive disorder, coupled with an application to revoke his suspended sentence in Oklahoma due, at least in part, to dishonesty about his alcohol use, was sufficient to justify a 20-year ban on using or possessing alcohol, but even assuming the district court erred in imposing this special condition, it did not rise to the level of plain error; and 2) given the defendant’s history of sexually abusing minors, and the fact that he could get permission from his probation officer to come within 500 feet of places used primarily by children, the prohibition on coming within 500 feet of a playground was proper. However, the order is reversed in part where the district court's prohibition on possessing any material that depicted nudity was overbroad.

Appellate Information

• Decided 07/21/2010
• Published 07/21/2010

Judges

• Bobby Shepherd

Court

• United States Eighth Circuit

Counsel