Facts: Petitioner Michael Peterson, a convicted sex offender, was convicted in the Superior Court for Snohomish County of failing to register as a sex offender as required by Washington Revised Code §9A.44.130 after vacating his residence and not notifying the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office of the change until almost three months later. Peterson subsequently appealed his conviction, asserting that the respondent state of Washington had failed to present sufficient evidence to establish his residential status and therefore had failed to establish which of the differing notification deadlines of §9A.44.130 governing differing residential statuses he had violated. The Washington Court of Appeals affirmed Peterson’s conviction, holding that although §9A.44.130 imposes different notification deadlines depending upon whether a sex offender is becoming homeless, moving from one fixed residence to another, or moving from one county to another, these differing deadlines do not govern different criminal acts but rather the single criminal act of failing to register. Thus, the Court of Appeals concluded that the state was not required to establish Peterson’s specific residential status, only that he had changed his address without timely notifying the proper authorities. Peterson appealed this decision to the Supreme Court of Washington.

Question(s): Was the state required to demonstrate which of the notification deadlines applied to Peterson in order to obtain a conviction for failing to register as a sex offender?

Conclusion: Justice Stephens’ opinion for a unanimous Court ruled that sufficient evidence had been presented to support convicting Peterson of failing to register as a sex offender as required by §9A.44.130 despite the fact that the state had failed to present evidence regarding his specific residential status insofar as Peterson, by failing to notify the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office within three days of changing his address, had failed to provide timely notice as defined by any of the three different notification deadlines.

Docket No. 82089-9 (from Court of Appeals Division I Case No. 59722-1)

Petitioner: Michael Peterson

(Counsel: Casey Grannis)

Respondent: State of Washington

(Counsel: Seth Aaron Fine)

Briefs:

Argument: Thursday, January 21, 2010 1:30pm

[Source: TVW, http://tvw.org]

Decided: Thursday, May 6th, 2010

Prevailing Party: State of Washington (Respondent)

Vote: 9-0

Citation: Pending

Court: Madsen1 Court (2010-)

Madsen

Johnson

Alexander

Sanders

Chambers

Owens

Fairhurst

Johnson

Stephens
(Majority)