United States Ninth Circuit

Defendant's conviction for failure to register as a sex offender in violation of the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA) is reversed and remanded, where: 1) the Attorney General has not yet "validly specified" that 42 U.S.C. section 16913(a)'s requirement of registration in the jurisdiction of the sex-offense conviction (if different from the jurisdiction of residence) applies to pre-Act offenders like the defendant who were, at the time of SORNA's enactment and implementation, already subject to sex offender registration obligations; 2) the district court's jury instruction erroneously permitting the jury to convict solely on the basis of the defendant's failure to register in the jurisdiction of his sex-offense conviction was not harmless; and 3) because the evidence was clearly insufficient to sustain a conviction under a correct reading of the law, the Double Jeopardy Clause forbids a second trial.

Appellate Information

• Decided 12/20/2013
• Published 12/20/2013

Judges

• TASHIMA

Court

• United States Ninth Circuit

Counsel