United States of America v. Olin Dudley Stevens

After defendant-appellant Olin Dudley Stevens was convicted on a charge of failing to register under the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA), Pub. L. No. 109-248, tit. I, §§ 101-155, 120 Stat. 587, 590-611 (2006), the district court sentenced him to serve 85 months in prison. He challenges his conviction, alleging both evidentiary insufficiency and constitutional infirmity. Concluding that his arguments lack merit, we affirm.

We rehearse the facts in the light most favorable to the verdict. United States v. Rodriguez-Velez, 597 F.3d 32, 38 (1st Cir. 2010). In 1993, the defendant was convicted of a sex crime in Rhode Island and incarcerated. Upon his release from immurement, the state notified him of his duty to register annually as a sex offender. See R.I. Gen. Laws § 11-37-16(a) (1992) (repealed 1996).*fn1 He initially complied and renewed his registration periodically. He eventually became less assiduous, and his failure to keep his registration current led, in 1996, to a no contest plea to a charge of failing to register as a sex offender. He did not learn his lesson and, four years later, he was again convicted on a charge of failure to keep his state sex offender registration current and given a suspended sentence.