Bollin v. Jones ex rel. State ex rel. Oklahoma Department of Corrections

2013 OK 72, 349 P.3d 537, 2013 WL 5204134, 2013 Okla. LEXIS 101
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedSeptember 17, 2013
DocketNo. 108,819
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 2013 OK 72 (Bollin v. Jones ex rel. State ex rel. Oklahoma Department of Corrections) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bollin v. Jones ex rel. State ex rel. Oklahoma Department of Corrections, 2013 OK 72, 349 P.3d 537, 2013 WL 5204134, 2013 Okla. LEXIS 101 (Okla. 2013).

Opinions

COMBS, J.

T1 Plaintiff, Michael Bollin (bhereinafter, "Bollin'"), challenges the constitutionality of the Sex Offenders Registration Act (hereinafter, "SORA") 57 O.8., § 581 et seq., and enforcement thereof by the Defendant, Justin Jones ex rel. State of Oklahoma ex rel. Oklahoma Department of Corrections (hereinafter, "Department"). We find when Bollin entered Oklahoma in June 2004 the law did not require a person with a pre-SORA conviction in another jurisdiction to register. Bollin should be held to the law in effect at the time he entered Oklahoma and became subject to SORA. Therefore, Bollin is not required to register under SORA and the trial court's order should be affirmed.

BACKGROUND

1 2 This matter was assigned to this office on February 6, 2018. SORA was enacted in 1989 to provide a system to register sex offenders. Title 57 0.8. Supp.1989, § 581 et seq. Legislative findings were added in 1997 which stated the purpose of SORA was to create a system of registration permitting law enforcement to identify sex offenders and alert the public of such sex offenders when necessary.1 SORA has been amended by the Oklahoma legislature in almost every year since its creation.

T3 Bollin was convicted of a sex offense2 in Missouri on June 1, 1987, and received a five-year incarceration sentence. He moved to Oklahoma in June 2004. Five and one-half years later, on January 4, 2010, he was advised by the Department of his obligation to register as a sex offender under SORA. On March 3, 2010, Bollin filed a Petition for Injunction to enjoin the Department from enforcing SORA against him. Bollin denied he was subject to SORA's registration re[539]*539quirements because SORA was not in effect at the time of his 1987 conviction.3 He also asserted Oklahomans convicted in Oklahoma prior to SORA are not required to register but persons convicted in another jurisdiction prior to SORA are required to register.

14 Both parties filed for summary judgment. Bollin argued the retroactive application of SORA by the Department violated the ban on ex post facto laws, the Privileges and Immunities Clause of the United States Constitution, the Due Process Clauses of the United States and Oklahoma Constitutions, and denied him equal protection of the law.

[ 5 The trial court held Bollin was entitled to a permanent injunction prohibiting the Department from requiring him to register under SORA and granted further relief from all the provisions .of SORA. The trial court concluded Bollin's constitutional right to equal protection of the laws had 'been violated because he was being treated differently than other similarly situated Oklahomans by reason of his conviction being from another state. The trial court determined there was no rational basis to discriminate between persons with qualifying convictions in Okla homa and persons with qualifying convictions from another state. The Department appealed and the Oklahoma Court of Civil Appeals (hereinafter, "COCA"), Division IV, reversed and found that when Bollin became a resident of this state after 1999, SORA applied.4 However, COCA was incorrect in referring to "[the 1999 and current versions of OSO-RA's § 582." The version relied upon by COCA in its opinion, found in footnote 4 of this opinion, did not fully come into effect until 2005 at a point-in time when Bollin was already residing in the state5 COCA remanded the matter to determine what specific amendments should apply stating that Bol-lin was subject to only the SORA provisions in effect at the time he became subject to them. On September 6, 2011, Bollin filed a Petition for Certiorari which we granted on November 14, 2011. '

STANDARD OF REVIEW

16 This case presents only questions of law, not fact, and we shall review such questions de novo. In re Estate of Bell-Levine, 2012 OK 112, ¶ 5, 293 P.3d 964, 966. An appeal on summary judgment comes to this Court as a de novo review. Carmichael v. Beller, 1996 OK 48, ¶ 2, 914 P.2d 1051, 1053. On appeal, this Court assumes "plenary independent and non-deferential authority to reexamine a trial court's legal rulings." Kluver v. Weatherford Hospital Auth., 1993 OK 85, ¶ 14, 859 P.2d 1081, 1084.

ANALYSIS

T7 The two primary provisions of SORA pertinent to this analysis are sections 582 and 583 of title 57 of the Oklahoma Statutes. Section 582 concerns the applicability of SORA and section 588 concerns SORA registration. SORA's purpose is to create a system of registration for sex offenders.6 These two sections are intertwined and should not be read in isolation of each other. '

' 8 When Bollin came to Oklahoma in June ©2004 subsection A of section 582 provided:

A. The provisions of the Sex Offenders Registration Act, ..., shall apply to any person residing, working or attending [540]*540school within the State of Oklahoma who, after November 1, 1989, has been convicted, whether upon a verdict or plea of guilty or upon a plea of nolo contendere, or received a suspended sentence or any probationary term for a crime or an attempt to commit a crime provided for in Section ... of the Oklahoma Statutes....
Title 57 O.8. Supp.2008, § 582 (emphasis added).

This subsection provided SORA is applicable to persons who have been convicted, received a suspended sentence or any probationary term, pursuant to one of the listed Oklahoma Statutes, after November 1, 1989, and who reside, work or attend school within Oklahoma.

¶ 9 Subsection B of section 582 in effect in June 2004 provided SORA is applicable to persons who reside, work or attend school in Oklahoma after November 1, 1989, and who were convicted or received a suspended sentence of an applicable crime in another jurisdiction. It read as follows:

B. The provisions of the Sex Offenders Registration Act shall apply to any person who after November 1, 1989, resides, works or attends school within the State of Oklahoma 'and who has been convicted or received a suspended sentence in any court of another state, a federal court, an Indian tribal court or 'a military court for a crime or attempted crime which, if committed or attempted in this state, would be a crime or an attempt to commit a crime provided for in any of said laws listed in subsection A of this section. Title 57 O0.S. Supp.2008, § 582 (emphasis added). '

However, in effect at the same time, section 588 only required actual registration for those persons convicted in another jurisdiction if the conviction occurred on or after November 1, 1989. It provided as follows:

B. Any person who has been convicted of an offense or received a deferred judgment for an offense on or after November 1, 1989, in another jurisdiction, which offense if committed or attempted in this state, would have been punishable as one or more of the offenses listed in Section 582 of this title and who enters this state shall be registered as follows:. ...
2004 Okla. Sess. Laws c. 162, § 1 (emerg. April 26, 2004) (emphasis added).

Subsection A of section 588 also provided, person who becomes subject to the provisions of the Sex Offenders Registration Act on or after November 1, 1989, shall be registered as follows:...." 2004 Okla. Sess. Laws c. 162, § 1 (emerg. April 26, 2004).

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
2013 OK 72, 349 P.3d 537, 2013 WL 5204134, 2013 Okla. LEXIS 101, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bollin-v-jones-ex-rel-state-ex-rel-oklahoma-department-of-corrections-okla-2013.