The N.C. Supreme Court has overturned a lower-court ruling and reinstated the conviction of a South Carolina sex offender who had moved to North Carolina and failed to register with the local sheriff as required by law. The Supreme Court held that the man had adequate notice to suspect that he needed to register in this state.
Roy Bryant was convicted in 1991 in South Carolina of a sexual assault and sentenced to 10 years in prison. When he got out of prison in 2000 he joined a traveling fair. He decided to remain in Winston-Salem after being admitted in the hospital with a broken jaw. Local police became aware of him in March 2001 and soon arrested him. A jury convicted Bryant of failing to register as a sex offender and being a habitual felon. He was sentence to 133 to 169 months in prisons. Bryant appealed.
The U.S. criminal justice system has long held that ignorance of the law is no defense to a criminal prosecution. In a 1957 case, Lambert v. California, the U.S. Supreme Court held that a narrow exception exists to this general rule when someone is charged with failing to register. In such cases, “actual knowledge of the duty to register or proof of the probability of such knowledge and subsequent failure to comply are necessary” is required for a conviction.
The N.C. Court of Appeals held that Bryant never received such notification and overturned his conviction. The appeals court noted that North Carolina law has no provision for notifying sex offenders when they move into the state that they are required to register with their local sheriff. The warnings Bryant received in South Carolina didn’t mention that he might have to register in other states if he moved there.
The N.C. Supreme Court, in overturning the Court of Appeals, held that Bryant had indeed received adequate notice of his duty to register. A critical factor in the court’s reasoning was that all states have sex-offender registries.
“We conclude that defendant, a convicted sex offender, was provided actual notice by South Carolina of his duty to register as a convicted sex offender,” Justice Brady wrote for the high court. “This notice was sufficient to put defendant on notice to inquire into the applicable law of the state to which he relocated, in this instance North Carolina. Therefore, defendant’s conviction for failure to register as a sex offender under N.C.G.S. § 14-208.11 does not violate due process.”
The case is State v. Roy Eugene Bryant, (173PA04).
http://www.aoc.state.nc.us/www/public/sc/opinions/2005/173-04-1.htm
Michael Lowrey is associate editor of Carolina Journal.