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Court Rejects Numerous Challenges to SORNA Conviction

By Jonathan Byrne

US v. Gould: Gould was convicted of a sex offense in DC in 1985. After his release he moved several times in the states surrounding the District. He finally settled in Maryland in August 2006. He did not register as a sex offender, as required by state law. In July 2007, Gould was charged federally with failing to register as a sex offender under the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act ("SORNA"). He moved to dismiss the indictment on various grounds, but the district court declined to do so. He entered a conditional plea and was sentenced to 24 months in prison.On appeal, the Fourth Circuit affirmed Gould's conviction, rejected several of the arguments he had raised below.First, Gould had argued that SORNA could not be applied to him because, at the time of his indictment, Maryland had not yet updated its sex offender registration procedure to conform with SORNA requirements...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Circuit Blog on June 19, 2009 (boomark / email).