Dean v. State

60 S.W.3d 217, 2001 WL 930881
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedNovember 8, 2001
Docket14-00-00303-CR
StatusPublished
Cited by24 cases

This text of 60 S.W.3d 217 (Dean v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Dean v. State, 60 S.W.3d 217, 2001 WL 930881 (Tex. Ct. App. 2001).

Opinion

OPINION

SEYMORE, Justice.

Without entering into a plea agreement, appellant, Franklin Dean, pled guilty to the offense of indecency with a child. Tex. Pen.Code Ann. § 21.11 (Vernon Supp. 2001). After conducting a pre-sentencing investigation, the court assessed punishment at ten (10) years confinement in the Institutional Division of TDCJ. In accordance with Chapter 62 of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure, appellant was required to register as a sex offender. Challenging the constitutionality of the registration portion of his conviction, appellant now raises four issues for review. We will affirm.

Ex Post Facto Violation

In his first issue for review, appellant contends the 1999 amendments to the Texas Sex Offender Registration Program (the “Act”) requiring registration as a sex offender violate the ex post facto clause of the U.S. Constitution. 1 Tex.Code Crim. PROC. Ann. Art. 62.01 et seq. (Vernon Supp.2001). According to the charging instrument, appellant exposed himself to a 8 year old child on or about May 15, 1999. The public disclosure amendments were effective September 1999. Tex.Code CRIM. Proc. Ann. Arts. 62.03(f), 62.04(g) (Vernon Supp.2001). 2

Whenever an attack upon the constitutionality of a statute is presented, we commence with the presumption that the statute is valid and that the Legislature has not acted unreasonably or arbitrarily. Ex parte Granviel, 561 S.W.2d 503, 511 (Tex.Crim.App.1978). The burden rests upon the individual who challenges the statute to establish its unconstitutionality. Id. It is the duty of the court to uphold the statute if a reasonable construction can be ascertained which will render it constitutional and carry out the legislative intent. Ely v. State, 582 S.W.2d 416 (Tex.Crim.App.1979). If a statute is capable of two constructions, one of which sustains its validity, the courts will give to it the interpretation that sustains its validity. Townsend v. State, 427 S.W.2d 55 (Tex.Crim.App.1968).

We begin our analysis of appellant’s ex post facto claim with the declaration in the U.S. Constitution that “[n]o state shall ... pass any ... ex post facto Law.” U.S. Const, art. I, § 10, cl. 1. The Supreme Court addressed the ex post facto issue for the first time in Calder v. Bull, 3 U.S. (3 Dall.) 386, 1 L.Ed. 648 (1798). The Calder court established the following categories to consider in deciding whether a law violates the ex post facto clause:

*220 1st. Every law that makes an action done before the passing of the law, and which was innocent, when done, criminal; and punishes such action. 2d. Every law that aggravates a crime, or makes it greater than it was, when committed.3d. Every law that changes the punishment, and inflicts a greater punishment, than the law annexed to the crime, when committed. 4th. Every law that alters the legal rules of evidence, and receives less, or different, testimony, than the law required at the time of the commission of the offence, in order to convict the offender.

3 U.S. (3 Dall.) at 390 (emphasis in original). The Supreme Court has repeatedly followed the Colder Court’s 200 year-old exposition of the U.S. Constitution’s ex post facto clause, most recently in Carmell v. Texas. 529 U.S. 513, 522, 525, 120 S.Ct. 1620, 146 L.Ed.2d 577 (2000).

The third Colder category is most relevant to the instant case. Under this rule, the Act and its amendments would violate the ex post facto clause if it “changes the punishment, and inflicts a greater punishment than the law annexed to the crime, when committed.” Colder, 3 U.S. (3 Dall.) at 390. Therefore, the amendments effectively violate ex post fac-to prohibitions in the U.S. Constitution if the following two questions are answered affirmatively: (1) Do the amendments apply retrospectively to appellant? (2) Do the amendments constitute punishment? Clearly, the amendments were applied retrospectively; therefore, our decision in this case turns on whether the 1999 amendments are punitive in nature or merely regulatory. The amendments are not ex post facto laws if they are regulatory, or civil in nature. See, e.g., Weaver v. Graham, 450 U.S. 24, 101 S.Ct. 960, 67 L.Ed.2d 17 (1981); United States v. Ward, 448 U.S. 242, 100 S.Ct. 2636, 65 L.Ed.2d 742 (1980). The overriding inquiry in such situations was enunciated by the Court in DeVeau v. Braisted, 363 U.S. 144, 80 S.Ct. 1146, 4 L.Ed.2d 1109 (1960):

“The question in each case, where unpleasant consequences are brought to bear upon an individual for prior conduct, is whether the legislative aim was to punish that individual for past activity, or whether the restriction of the individual comes about as a relevant incident to a regulation of a present situation....”

363 U.S. at 160, 80 S.Ct. 1146.

Initially, we note that the vast majority of federal and state courts confronted with attacks on the validity of sex-offender registration statutes have concluded that they pass constitutional muster. Examples of federal decisions follow: Cutshall v. Sundquist, 193 F.3d 466 (6th Cir.1999) (Tennessee Sex Offender Registration and Monitoring Act did not violate ex post facto clause); Russell v. Gregoire, 124 F.3d 1079 (9th Cir.1997) (statute showed regulatory, not punitive, effect, so no violation of ex post facto clause); Doe v. Pataki, 120 F.3d 1263 (2d Cir.1997) (neither registration nor notification provisions under the New York act inflicted punishment under ex post facto clause); E.B. v. Verniero, 119 F.3d 1077 (3d Cir.1997) (notification under New Jersey Registration and Community Notification Laws did not constitute punishment for purposes of ex post facto and double jeopardy clauses); Artway v. Attorney General, 81 F.3d 1235 (3d Cir.1996) (challenge to notification aspects of New Jersey law not ripe, but registration requirements do not violate ex post facto clause); Roe v. Farwell, 999 F.Supp. 174 (D.Mass.1998) (registration requirements of Massachusetts law do not violate the ex post facto clause, however, unlimited public access provisions are too broad to be constitutional); Lanni v. Engler, 994 F.Supp. 849 *221

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60 S.W.3d 217, 2001 WL 930881, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/dean-v-state-texapp-2001.