Court Opinion

ID: 9786073
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-30 23:46:30.292821+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:36:41.398730
License: Public Domain

MANNHEIMER, Judge,
dissenting.
I agree with my colleagues that the State's prosecution of Hawkins presents no ex post facto problem. Nevertheless, Hawkins could not lawfully be prosecuted under former AS 11.56.840 for failing to register as a sex offender.
AS 11.56.840(a)(1) declares that a person commits the crime of failing to register as a sex offender if the person "knowingly fails to ... register ... as required in AS 12.63.010". AS 12.63.010(a) contains three different registration deadlines for various categories of sex offenders, but none of these three deadlines applies to defendants like Hawkins who were unconditionally discharged from their convictions before the enactment of the Sex Offender Registration Act. The registration deadline for this category of sex offenders is found in an uncodified session law, SLA 1994, ch. 41, see. 12(a)-as later modified by former 13 AAC 09.010(d), and then by SLA 1998, ch. 106, see. 25(a).1
The legislature has never enacted a criminal penalty to enforce this deadline. That is, even though AS 11.56.840 penalizes a sex offender's failure to meet the registration deadlines specified in AS 12.63.010(a), no criminal statute penalizes a sex offender's failure to meet the registration deadline established in SLA 1994, ch. 41, sec. 12(a). Because the legislature has failed to provide a criminal penalty for failing to meet the registration deadline that applies to Hawkins, Hawkins could not be convicted of failing to register. See my dissent in Nunley v. State, 26 P.3d 1113, 1115-17 (Alaska App.2001).

. Currently, SLA 1998, ch. 106, sec. 25(a) specifies the registration deadline for this category of offenders. It states:
APPLICABILITY. (a) A sex offender or child kidnapper with, before the effective date of this Act, (1) one conviction for an aggravated sex offense, (2) two or more convictions for a sex offense or child kidnapping, or (3) one conviction for a child kidnapping and one conviction for a sex offense, regardless of whether the offender or kidnapper has been unconditionally discharged from that conviction or convictions, shall register under AS 12.63.010, as amended by sees. 7-11 of this Act, by the 60th day after the effective date of this Act [F.e., by March 2, 1999]. A sex offender or child kidnapper with only one conviction for a sex offense that is not an aggravated sex offense or only one conviction for a child kidnapping, and who was unconditionally discharged from that offense before July 1, 1984, does not have to register under this Act. A sex offender or child kidnapper with only one conviction for a sex offense that is not an aggravated sex offense or only one conviction for a child kidnapping who was required to register under sec. 12, ch. 41, SLA 1994, shall continue to register as provided by AS 12.63.010, as amended by secs. 7-11 of this Act.