Posted on
October 15, 2011 in
Texas Code of Criminal Procedure Article 62.003 provides:
(a) For the purposes of this chapter, the department is responsible for determining whether an offense under the laws of another state, federal law, the laws of a foreign country, or the Uniform Code of Military Justice contains elements that are substantially similar to the elements of an offense under the laws of this state.
(b) The department annually shall provide or make available to each prosecuting attorney's office in this state:
(1) the criteria used in making a determination under Subsection (a); and
(2) any existing record or compilation of offenses under the laws of another state, federal law, the laws of a foreign country, and the Uniform Code of Military Justice that the department has already determined to contain elements that are substantially similar to the elements of offenses under the laws of this state.
(c) An appeal of a determination made under this article shall be brought in a district court in Travis County.
"The department" is the Department of Public Safety. I made a public-information request for the criteria under (b)(1) and the compilation under (b)(2).
The DPS does not have criteria other than 62.003(a). They sent me compilations of the offenses from twenty-three other jurisdictions that they have determined to be substantially similar to Texas sex-offender registration cases.
Each memorandum notes that it is not an exhaustive list.
The jurisdictions:
- Arizona
- Arkansas
- California
- Colorado
- Federal
- Florida
- Georgia
- Illinois
- Indiana
- Kansas
- Louisiana
- Michigan
- Military
- Minnesota
- Missouri
- Nebraska
- New Mexico
- New York
- Ohio
- Oklahoma
- Virginia
- Washington
- Wisconsin
Or you can download a ZIPped folder of all 23 memoranda.
Mark, is there an exemption from having to register if you’re a former law enforcement officer, judge, or prosecutor who is convicted of child sex crimes? I found the following site and after reading a few dozen of the linked articles, I noticed that in many instances cops, prosecutors and judges are spared from having to register as sex offenders. https://www.facebook.com/pages/Tribute-to-survivors-of-child-sexual-assault-by-law-enforcement-officers/180584842010594?sk=wall
Not that I know of.
Since a lot of states won’t touch SORNA with a ten-foot pole, and there is no national set of rules on reporting, it gets weird when you move from one state to another. I know. In North Carolina my offence was held as non-violent by my sentencing Judge. I went to minimum custody and work release, during my relatively short 5 year term. I moved to Virginia and they changed my order to register to “Violent”. Guess how many people are willing to hire me? I could argue with the State Police until I turn blue in the face, but they did a comparison, like shown on that PDF, and determined that their statute declared my crime a violent one. Owell, so much for being honest and upfront and cooperative with the police. Was THAT a stupid thing to do. Ric
Do you have an updated list?
I need the 2014 Military Offenses and I’m getting some pushback from DPS. They’re waffling over a similarity to 33.021(b).
I don’t, Philip. I’m sorry.