Opinion ID: 1423570
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Is the Registration Requirement Punishment?

Text: To determine whether the registration requirement is punitive or regulatory, we look first to whether the legislative aim was to punish [an] individual for past activity, or whether the restriction of the individual comes about as a relevant incident to a regulation of a present situation. De Veau v. Braisted, 363 U.S. 144, 160, 80 S.Ct. 1146, 1155, 4 L.Ed.2d 1109 (1960). If the legislative aim was punitive, we treat the registration requirement as a punishment. If, on the other hand, the legislature indicated a non-punitive purpose, we must inquire[] further whether the statutory scheme was so punitive either in purpose or effect as to negate that intention. United States v. Ward, 448 U.S. 242, 250, 100 S.Ct. 2636, 2641, 65 L.Ed.2d 742 (1980) (citing Flemming v. Nestor, 363 U.S. 603, 617-21, 80 S.Ct. 1367, 1376-78, 4 L.Ed.2d 1435 (1960)). [5] The legislative history [6] behind § 13-3821 does not indicate whether the statute was intended to be punitive or regulatory. Consequently, we turn to the factors enumerated in Kennedy v. Mendoza-Martinez, 372 U.S. 144, 169, 83 S.Ct. 554, 568, 9 L.Ed.2d 644 (1963) (Absent conclusive evidence of [legislative] intent as to the penal nature of a statute, these factors must be considered in relation to the statute on its face.). [7] The Mendoza-Martinez factors are [w]hether the sanction involves an affirmative disability or restraint, whether it has historically been regarded as a punishment, whether it comes into play only on a finding of scienter, whether its operation will promote the traditional aims of punishment  retribution and deterrence, whether the behavior to which it applies is already a crime, whether an alternative purpose to which it may rationally be connected is assignable for it, and whether it appears excessive in relation to the alternative purpose assigned.... Mendoza-Martinez, 372 U.S. at 168-69, 83 S.Ct. at 567-68 (footnotes omitted).
Both panels of the court of appeals applied the Mendoza-Martinez factors. The panel in Noble held that § 13-3821 constituted punishment under Mendoza-Martinez; the panel in McCuin held that it did not. Both opinions are well-reasoned and persuasive. Because they reach opposite results, however, we conduct our own analysis of the relevant Mendoza-Martinez factors. These factors focus appropriate attention on the effects of the registration requirement on convicted sex offenders and on the rationality between the requirement and its purported non-punitive function. See generally Maria Foscarinis, Note, Toward a Constitutional Definition of Punishment, 80 Colum.L.Rev. 1667, 1670-77 (1980).
In Noble, the court of appeals found that the registration statute imposes an affirmative disability or restraint because registration impair[s] employability, subject[s] registrants to increased police scrutiny, and last[s] for life. 167 Ariz. at 444, 808 P.2d at 329. These results occur because the registration documents are available not only to law enforcement officials, but also to employers, potential employers and volunteer youth-serving agencies if the victim of the underlying offense was a minor and the registrant's employment or volunteer activity would place him in regular contact with minors under fifteen years of age. Id. at 443, 808 P.2d at 328; see A.R.S. § 41-1750(B)(11). In McCuin, on the other hand, the court of appeals found that the registration requirement does not affirmatively inhibit or restrain an offender's movement or activities. 167 Ariz. at 454, 808 P.2d at 339 (emphasis added). We agree. The registration information may in some circumstances be available to potential employers and government agencies not involved in law enforcement. The information is only available, however, in statutorily specified circumstances where it serves a clearly regulatory purpose. A.R.S. § 41-1750(B). [8] At most, the requirement allows employers and social service agencies in certain sensitive areas, as well as governmental licensing agencies, to take the offender's record of conviction into account in rendering decisions on matters to which the offender's record is relevant. Furthermore, these employers and agencies already have access under § 41-1750(B) to the offender's conviction record, which includes the fact of the conviction along with identifying information. See A.R.S. § 41-1750(B); Rule 37.1(a), Ariz.R.Crim.P., 17 A.R.S. (requiring convicting court to report the final disposition of the case ... to the criminal identification section of the Department of Public Safety if the defendant was incarcerated or fingerprinted as a result of the charge) (hereinafter Rule 37.1(a)). The registration requirement's marginal impact on the information available to non-law enforcement personnel is not the kind of affirmative disability or restraint usually associated with criminal punishment. McCuin, 167 Ariz. at 454, 808 P.2d at 339. Cf. Cummings v. Missouri, 71 U.S. (4 Wall.) 277, 18 L.Ed. 356 (1866) (Missouri constitutional provision disqualifying person from ministry, teaching, law practice, and other callings operated to impose additional punishment for past crimes).
In Noble the court decided that being perpetually identified as a sex offender could be considered punishment, but that the statutory limitations on access to the registration information alleviate the damaging impact of such exposure. 167 Ariz. at 444-45, 808 P.2d at 329-30 (using Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter (1850) as an example). The court in McCuin, in contrast, concluded that registration simply has not traditionally or historically been regarded as a punishment. 167 Ariz. at 454, 808 P.2d at 339. Registration has been a traditional governmental method of regulating the activities or conduct of a particular group, including convicted felons. Id. We agree with the Noble court that registration has traditionally been viewed as punitive. The California Supreme Court has described sex offender registration as an ignominious badge. In re Birch, 10 Cal.3d 314, 322, 515 P.2d 12, 17, 110 Cal. Rptr. 212, 217 (1973). And the United States Supreme Court, in holding that a sentence of permanent government surveillance was cruel and unusual punishment, described the convict as forever kept under the shadow of his crime, forever kept within voice and view of the criminal magistrate, not being able to change his domicil without giving notice to the `authority immediately in charge of his surveillance,' and without permission in writing. He may not seek, even in other scenes and among other people, to retrieve his fall from rectitude. Even that hope is taken from him, and he is subject to tormenting regulations that, if not so tangible as iron bars and stone walls, oppress as much by their continuity, and deprive of essential liberty. Weems v. United States, 217 U.S. 349, 366, 30 S.Ct. 544, 549, 54 L.Ed. 793 (1910). We also agree with Noble, however, that the provisions in the statute limiting access to the registration information significantly dampen its stigmatic effect. Noble, 167 Ariz. at 443, 808 P.2d at 328; see A.R.S. §§ 13-3823 (access to records), 41-1750(B) (same). As we have already noted, much of the information that convicted sex offenders must provide under § 13-3821 is available through § 41-1750 and Rule 37.1(a) independent of the registration statute.
The registration requirement serves, at least in part, the traditional deterrent function of punishment, the notion being that a convicted sex offender is less likely to commit a subsequent offense if his whereabouts are easily ascertained by law enforcement officials. See State v. Lammie, 164 Ariz. 377, 382, 793 P.2d 134, 139 (Ct. App. 1990) (Registration for lifetime places a defendant on notice that when subsequent sexual crimes are committed in the area where he lives, he will be subject to investigation. This may well have a prophylactic effect, deterring him from future sexual crimes.).
In both Noble and McCuin, the court of appeals found that the registration requirement was rationally related to an alternative, non-punitive purpose: facilitating law enforcement by aiding in investigative work. Noble, 167 Ariz. at 445, 808 P.2d at 330; McCuin, 167 Ariz. at 455, 808 P.2d at 340. We agree that the registration requirement serves a regulatory purpose. Registration is a valuable tool in the hands of the police, because it gives them a current record of the identity and location of ex-felons. Atteberry v. State, 84 Nev. 213, 438 P.2d 789, 791 (1968); see also Lammie, 164 Ariz. at 382-83, 793 P.2d at 139-40; People v. Adams, 581 N.E.2d 637, 640 (Ill. 1991) (The Registration Act was designed to aid law enforcement agencies. With the registration requirement, the habitual offender's address is readily available to law enforcement agencies, which may then question and, if necessary, detain him under appropriate circumstances.). The Noble court expressed concern that convicted sex offenders, by being required to register, would be burdened by being defined as a member of a small and ... notorious group more likely to be questioned and investigated when local sex crimes occur. 167 Ariz. at 443, 808 P.2d at 328. Registration assists law enforcement officers in locating past sex offenders when new crimes are committed, but registration does not, and could not, diminish registrants' general right to be free from unconstitutional law enforcement practices. Absent evidence linking a particular registrant to a crime sufficient to establish individualized reasonable suspicion or probable cause, a registrant could not be detained or arrested for questioning. The registration information could properly be used, on the other hand, to locate past offenders during the course of developing investigative leads, and to facilitate apprehension once there is probable cause to arrest a specific registrant. [9] Furthermore, the registration requirement, as applied to child sex offenders, is not excessive in relation to its non-punitive, law enforcement purpose. Although the court of appeals in Noble, in contrast, held that the scope of the requirement is excessive because it applies equally to anyone convicted of any sex offense, including cohabitation, sodomy, adultery, and lewd and lascivious conduct, 167 Ariz. at 445, 808 P.2d at 330, our inquiry is more narrow. We need not decide whether the registration requirement would constitute punishment if applied to offenders convicted of other offenses for which the threat of recidivism may possibly be less significant or for which registration may have no valid regulatory purpose. With respect to the offenses of child molestation and sexual misconduct with a minor, however, the registration requirement is not excessive given the assistance it provides to law enforcement agencies in investigating future offenses and the importance of locating and apprehending recidivists. [10]
We acknowledge that § 13-3821 has both punitive and regulatory effects. See Trop v. Dulles, 356 U.S. 86, 96, 78 S.Ct. 590, 596, 2 L.Ed.2d 630 (1958) (The Court has recognized that any statute decreeing some adversity as a consequence of certain conduct may have both a penal and a nonpenal effect.). Moreover, we agree with Noble that the Mendoza-Martinez factors point in differing directions. 167 Ariz. at 446, 808 P.2d at 331 (quoting Mendoza-Martinez, 372 U.S. at 169, 83 S.Ct. at 568). Although several of the Mendoza-Martinez factors suggest that § 13-3821 is punitive, our task is not simply to count the factors on each side, but to weigh them. The most significant factor in this case is our determination that, as noted, the overriding purpose of § 13-3821 is facilitating the location of child sex offenders by law enforcement personnel, a purpose unrelated to punishing Noble and McCuin for past offenses. In addition, potentially punitive aspects of the statute have been mitigated. Registrants are not forced to display a scarlet letter to the world; outside of a few regulatory exceptions, the information provided by sex offenders pursuant to the registration statute is kept confidential. See supra note 8 and accompanying text. Our decision is close. We nonetheless conclude that, on balance, requiring convicted sex offenders to register pursuant to § 13-3821 is not punishment. Consequently, the retrospective application of the statute to these defendants does not violate the ex post facto clause of the United States or Arizona Constitution.