Argument preview: When a sex offender moves out of the country, does he have to tell anyone?
Evan Lee Guest
Posted Tue, February 23rd, 2016 11:29 am
When Lester Ray Nichols, a federally convicted sex offender, left Kansas in 2012 to go live in the Philippines, one might have thought the United States government would be happy to see the back of him. Not so. Federal authorities tracked him down in Manila and escorted him back to Kansas, where he was convicted in federal district court of failing to notify Kansas authorities that he had left the state. On March 1, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear his argument that his move never triggered a duty to notify anyone.
Nichols’s case turns on the interpretation of the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA). Two SORNA provisions are in play, 42 U.S.C. § 16913(a) and (c). They state (in pertinent part):
Argument preview: When a sex offender moves out of the country, does he have to tell anyone? (Click here for full story)