Court Opinion

ID: 9582383
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 22:26:04.450138+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:37:44.101260
License: Public Domain

*256Chief Justice TOAL.
While I concur with the majority regarding the subject matter jurisdiction of the family court, I respectfully dissent on the question of whether Appellant’s name should be removed from the Sex Offender Registry. I believe Appellant’s name should not be removed, and therefore I would affirm the family court’s ruling that Appellant must register as a sex offender.
In deciding that the North .Carolina statute at issue is dissimilar from S.C.Code Ann. § 16-15-140 (2003 & Supp. 2008), the majority focuses on the difference in the ages of the perpetrator and victim under the statutes. The North Carolina statute Appellant was charged under applies when the perpetrator is younger than sixteen years and the victim is at least three years younger than the perpetrator. The South Carolina statute at issue may be applied to any perpetrator over the age of fourteen years who engages in lewd acts with a person younger than sixteen years. The majority contends that this difference makes the statutes too dissimilar to require Appellant to register as a sex offender under S.C.Code Ann. § 23-3-430 (2003 & Supp.2008).
In my view, the majority overlooks an important point: that Appellant’s criminal sexual conduct with a four year old child meets the elements of both the North Carolina and South Carolina statutes. If Appellant had committed this crime in South Carolina, he could have been charged under Lewd Act Upon a Minor Under Sixteen, S.C.Code Ann. § 16-15-140 (2003 & Supp.2008), which is a registry-eligible offense under S.C.Code Ann. § 23-3-430(0(11) (2003). I believe the crime he committed in North Carolina is an offense similar to S.C.Code Ann. § 16-15-140 because it proscribes the very crime he committed. Because Appellant would have been ordered to register as a sex offender if he had committed the same act in South Carolina, I would affirm the family court and hold that he is required under S.C.Code Ann. § 23-3-430 to register as a sex offender in this state.
KITTREDGE, J„ concurs.