Summary
The Indiana Supreme Court held that applying Indiana’s Sex Offender Registration Act to Richard Wallace, whose child-molesting offense and sentence predated the Act, violated the Indiana Constitution’s Ex Post Facto Clause. The court concluded that, as applied to Wallace, the Act’s registration, notification, disclosure, and related obligations had punitive effects. The court reversed the trial court’s judgment on the ex post facto claim and summarily affirmed the Court of Appeals on the remaining issues.
Topics
Practice areas
Questions Presented
- Whether Wallace's 1989 plea agreement barred the State from prosecuting him for failing to register as a sex offender.
- Whether the evidence was sufficient to support Wallace's conviction for failing to register.
- Whether applying Indiana's Sex Offender Registration Act to Wallace violated the ex post facto prohibitions of the Indiana and federal Constitutions.
Holdings
- Applying the Act to Wallace violated Article 1, section 24 of the Indiana Constitution because the Act imposed burdens that had the effect of adding punishment beyond what could have been imposed when he committed his crime.
- The court did not separately resolve the federal constitutional claim because it granted relief under the Indiana Constitution; it recognized that the United States Supreme Court had reached a different result under the federal Ex Post Facto Clause in Smith v. Doe.
Key quotations
“The Indiana Constitution has unique vitality, even where its words parallel federal language.” (905 N.E.2d at 378)
“We conclude that as applied to Wallace, the Act violates the prohibition on ex post facto laws contained in the Indiana Constitution because it imposes burdens that have the effect of adding punishment beyond that which could have been imposed when his crime was committed.” (905 N.E.2d at 384)
Factual background
Wallace pleaded guilty to Class C felony child molesting on February 15, 1989, and completed his suspended five-year sentence and probation in 1992. Indiana enacted sex-offender registration legislation in 1994 and amended it in 2001 to require registration by all offenders convicted of specified sex offenses regardless of conviction date. After authorities determined that Wallace was required to register, he declined to do so and was convicted of failing to register as a sex offender.
Procedural history
Wallace pleaded guilty to child molesting in 1989, completed probation in 1992, and was later prosecuted for failing to register under amendments to Indiana's Sex Offender Registration Act. The trial court denied his motion to dismiss, and a jury convicted him in 2007. The Indiana Court of Appeals affirmed, but the Supreme Court of Indiana granted transfer, reversed on the Indiana ex post facto claim, and summarily affirmed the Court of Appeals' opinion in all other respects.