Daniel Hawk v. Commonwealth - 3/15/13 - Reversing and Remanding
Hawk was convicted of
failure to register as a sex offender, second offense, because he had one prior
offense for failing to register in Michigan. Hawk argued that the state
specifically required a prior conviction in Kentucky to be guilty of failure to
register, second offense.
The Court of Appeals
agreed. “We must agree with Appellant that the
plain language of KRS 17.510 requires a prior conviction under the current
Kentucky statute, or a prior version of such, to sustain a conviction for
failure to register, second offense. If the legislature had intended to punish someone
who has a prior offense in a foreign jurisdiction as a second time offender, it
would have been so stated in the statute.”
Bob Ganstine argued the case before
the trial court and Erin Yang briefed the case on appeal.
Contributed by Jason Apollo Hart
