Charlton Paul Green was convicted in Cherokee County Superior Court in a bench trial on May 7, 2009, of failure to register as a sex offender. The underlying conviction requiring Green to register as a sex offender was a 1999 conviction for sodomy. On appeal, Green challenges the sufficiency of the evidence, arguing that the state failed to prove that he is required to register as a sex offender because under Powell v. State 1 and Lawrence v. Texas ,2 consensual sodomy is no longer a crime. Green also argues that his trial counsel was ineffective for not asserting this defense at trial. We affirm. The record here shows that in 1997, Green was charged with sodomy in violation of OCGA § 16-6-2,3 after he performed oral sex on another male, who was 16 years old at the time of the incident. Green pled guilty in Pickens County Superior Court and was sentenced as a first offender, but after violating the terms of his probation, he was ultimately convicted and sentenced on the sodomy count and related offenses in January 1999, which subjected him to the sexual offender registration statutes.
In January 2005, Green was charged with failure to register as a sex offender in Cherokee County, after he failed to register as required by OCGA § 42-1-12. Green pled guilty and was sentenced to serve one year, to run concurrent with the sentence imposed in another Cherokee County case, where he was sentenced on January 25, 2005, to two years in confinement after pleading guilty to possession of methamphetamine. On December 9, 2008, Green was indicted again for failing to register as a sex offender and was charged as a recidivist. Green was convicted in a bench trial, then filed a motion for new trial, in which he asserted the arguments he now raises on appeal. It is from his conviction and the denial of his motion for new trial that Green appeals. The sex offender registration law first became effective on July 1, 1996 and, in pertinent part, requires registration by any individual who “has previously been convicted of a criminal offense against a minor, as defined in OCGA § 42-1-12 a 9, and may be released from prison or placed on parole, supervised release, or probation on or after July 1, 1996.” OCGA § 42-1-12 e 3.4 As a result of his sodomy conviction in 1999, Green was required to register as a sex offender pursuant to OCGA § § 42-1-12 a 9 A iii and e 1. OCGA § 42-1-12 e 1 provides that e “registration pursuant to this Code section shall be required by any individual who: 1 is convicted on or after July 1, 1996, of a criminal offense against a victim who is a minor.” Subsection a 9 A defines “criminal offense against a victim who is a minor” as follows: “any criminal offense under Title 16 or any offense under federal law or the laws of another state or territory of the United States which consists of . . . iii criminal sexual conduct toward a minor.” OCGA § 42-1-12 a 14 defines a minor, in pertinent part, as “any individual under the age of 18 years.” Green’s argument on appeal is not directed at any provision of the registration statute. Rather, he maintains that because of substantive changes in the law, which legalized consensual sodomy in Georgia, he is not required to register.
