People v. Parilla

109 A.D.3d 20, 970 N.Y.S.2d 497

This text of 109 A.D.3d 20 (People v. Parilla) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People v. Parilla, 109 A.D.3d 20, 970 N.Y.S.2d 497 (N.Y. Ct. App. 2013).

Opinion

OPINION OF THE COURT

Andrias, J.

In this appeal, we consider whether amendments made to the Sex Offender Registration Act (SORA) (Correction Law art 6-C) since 1996, that, among other things, impose more stringent registration and notice requirements for convicted sex offenders, have rendered the act a punitive statute, so that its retroactive application to defendant violates the Ex Post Facto Clause or the state and federal constitutional prohibition against double jeopardy. For the reasons that follow, we find that SORA, as amended, does not constitute an impermissible ex post facto law or subject defendant to double jeopardy and that the record supports defendant’s adjudication as a level three sexually violent offender.

[22]*22On June 11,1996, defendant pleaded guilty to attempted murder in the second degree, admitting that on September 11, 1993 he raped a woman and repeatedly stabbed her in the chest. While defendant was incarcerated, his DNA was found to match the DNA developed from a semen sample collected from another rape victim on August 29, 1993, and defendant was indicted for that crime, which was committed while he was on parole after a 1990 conviction for robbery in the second degree. On June 25, 2003, defendant pleaded guilty to rape in the first degree and sodomy in the first degree. On September 16, 2003, he was sentenced, as a second violent felony offender (based on the robbery conviction), to 7 to 14 years, to run concurrently with the sentence on the attempted murder conviction.1

Before his conditional release date, the Board of Examiners of Sex Offenders (Board) prepared a case summary and risk assessment instrument (RAI) that assessed a total score of 170 points for various risk factors, which placed defendant presumptively in risk level three under SORA. The Board also recommended that defendant be designated a sexually violent offender based on his first-degree rape and sodomy convictions (see Correction Law § 168-a [3]). Defendant then moved to be classified at a lower risk level and to find SORA unconstitutional on its face and as applied to him. On April 1, 2010, after a hearing, defendant was designated a level three sexually violent offender under SORA.

SORA, effective January 21, 1996 (see L 1995, ch 192, § 3), imposes registration requirements on “ £[s]ex offender[s],’ ” i.e., “any person who is convicted of’ certain sex offenses enumerated in the statute (Correction Law § 168-a [1]). The act “applies to sex offenders incarcerated or on parole or probation on its effective date, as well as to those sentenced thereafter, thereby imposing its obligations on many persons whose crimes were committed prior to the effective date” (Doe v Pataki, 120 F3d 1263, 1266 [2d Cir 1997], cert denied 522 US 1122 [1998]; see Correction Law § 168-g).

In Doe v Pataki, the Second Circuit held that the retroactive application of SORA did not violate the Ex Post Facto Clause because the statute was intended to further the nonpunitive goals of protecting the public and enhancing law enforcement authorities’ ability to investigate and prosecute future sex [23]*23crimes, and neither SORA’s public notification requirements nor its registration requirements were so punitive in form and effect as to negate the legislature’s nonpunitive intent (120 F3d at 1277, 1284, 1285; see also Correction Law § 168). Defendant argues that SORA has been amended so significantly since Doe v Pataki that it is now a punitive statute, and that its retroactive application to him violates the Ex Post Facto Clause and the state and federal constitutional prohibition against double jeopardy.

States are prohibited from enacting an ex post facto law (US Const, art I, § 10 [1]), i.e., a law that “retroactively alter[s] the definition of crimes or increased] the punishment for criminal acts” (Collins v Youngblood, 497 US 37, 43 [1990]).

“A statute will be considered an ex post facto law if it ‘punishes as a crime an act previously committed, which was innocent when done,’ ‘makes more burdensome the punishment for a crime, after its commission,’ or ‘deprives one charged with crime of any defense available according to law at the time when the act was committed’ ” (People v Foster, 87 AD3d 299, 306 [2d Dept 2011], lv denied 18 NY3d 858 [2011], quoting Beazell v Ohio, 269 US 167, 169 [1925]).

In determining whether a statute renders the punishment for a crime more burdensome for purposes of the Ex Post Facto Clause, the United States Supreme Court has implemented an intent-effects test (see Smith v Doe, 538 US 84, 92 [2003]). Under the first prong of this test, the court determines whether the legislature intended the statute to be punitive or civil in nature. If the court finds that the legislature intended the statute to be punitive, then its retroactive application violates the Ex Post Facto Clause.

Notwithstanding numerous amendments to the statute since Doe v Pataki, the Court of Appeals has consistently held that SORA, “ ‘is not a penal statute and the registration requirement is not a criminal sentence. Rather than imposing punishment for a past crime, SORA is a remedial statute intended to prevent future crime’ ” (People v Gravino, 14 NY3d 546, 556-558 [2010] [emphasis deleted], quoting Matter of North v Board of Examiners of Sex Offenders of State of N.Y., 8 NY3d 745, 752 [2007]; see also People v Windham, 10 NY3d 801, 802 [2008] [a SORA risk-level determination is a “collateral consequence of a conviction for a sex offense designed not to punish, but rather [24]*24to protect the public”]).2 Accordingly, because the legislature intended the statute to be regulatory (see People v Pettigrew, 14 NY3d 406, 408 [2010]; People v Mingo, 12 NY3d 563, 571 [2009]; People v Stevens, 91 NY2d 270, 277 [1998]), we proceed to the second prong of the intents-effects test and consider whether SORA is now “so punitive either in purpose or effect as to negate [the State’s] intention to deem it civil” (Smith v Doe, 538 US at 92 [internal quotation marks omitted]). Because deference is due to a legislature’s stated intent, “only the clearest proof will suffice to override legislative intent and transform what has been denominated a civil remedy into a criminal penalty” (id. [internal quotation marks omitted]).

In performing the effects analysis, we consider the seven factors articulated in Kennedy v Mendoza-Martinez (372 US 144, 168-169 [1963]): (1) does the sanction involve an affirmative disability or restraint?; (2) has the sanction been historically regarded as punishment?; (3) is the sanction imposed only upon a finding of scienter?; (4) does the operation of the sanction promote retribution and deterrence?; (5) is the behavior to which it applies already a crime?; (6) is there an alternative purpose to which the sanction may rationally be connected?; and (7) is the sanction excessive in relation to the alternative purpose? The United States Supreme Court has not allocated a specific weight to each factor, but has observed that the factors “often point in differing directions” (see id. at 169) and that no one factor is determinative (see Hudson v United States, 522 US 93, 101 [1997]).

As applied to SORA, our evaluation of these factors leads to the conclusion that the post -Doe v Pataki

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Related

Beazell v. Ohio
269 U.S. 167 (Supreme Court, 1925)
Kennedy v. Mendoza-Martinez
372 U.S. 144 (Supreme Court, 1963)
Collins v. Youngblood
497 U.S. 37 (Supreme Court, 1990)
Hudson v. United States
522 U.S. 93 (Supreme Court, 1997)
Smith v. Doe
538 U.S. 84 (Supreme Court, 2003)
People v. Pettigrew
927 N.E.2d 1053 (New York Court of Appeals, 2010)
People v. Williams
925 N.E.2d 878 (New York Court of Appeals, 2010)
People v. Gravino
928 N.E.2d 1048 (New York Court of Appeals, 2010)
People v. Stevens
692 N.E.2d 985 (New York Court of Appeals, 1998)
People v. Parilla
870 N.E.2d 142 (New York Court of Appeals, 2007)
North v. Board of Examiners
871 N.E.2d 1133 (New York Court of Appeals, 2007)
People v. Windham
886 N.E.2d 179 (New York Court of Appeals, 2008)
People v. Mingo
910 N.E.2d 983 (New York Court of Appeals, 2009)
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Bluebook (online)
109 A.D.3d 20, 970 N.Y.S.2d 497, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-parilla-nyappdiv-2013.