DEFENDANT’S LEVEL THREE SEX OFFENDER ADJUDICATION SHOULD NOT HAVE BEEN VACATED, HIS SENTENCE ON A SEX OFFENSE WAS INTERRUPTED WHEN THE PAROLE BOARD DECLARED HIM DELINQUENT, WHEN DEFENDANT RETURNED TO STATE CUSTODY AFTER A SUBSEQUENT MURDER CONVICTION, HIS SEX OFFENSE SENTENCE RESUMED MAKING HIM SUBJECT TO SORA (SECOND DEPT).
The Second Department determined the defendant's level three sex offender adjudication should not have been vacated on the ground that defendant had completed his sex offense sentence in 1980, well before SORA went into effect in 1996. The Second Department held that defendant's sentence had been interrupted in 1979 when the Parole Board declared him delinquent. Defendant was subsequently prosecuted for murder and when defendant returned to state custody after his murder conviction in 1982, his sex offense sentence resumed:
Contrary to the defendant's contention, his rape and attempted robbery sentences were “automatically interrupted when the Parole Board declared him delinquent” on June 4, 1979 … . The defendant was not entitled to credit against those interrupted sentences for his time spent in local custody while his murder case was pending, as none of the provisions providing for such credit in Penal Law former § 70.40(3)(c) apply in this case (see Penal Law former § 70.40[3][c]…). The interruption of the defendant's rape and attempted robbery sentences that began on June 4, 1979, continued until the defendant returned “to an institution under the jurisdiction of the state department of correction,” which in this case occurred when the defendant was returned to the custody of DOCCS on January 19, 1982 (Penal Law former § 70.40[3][a]…). Upon his return to the custody of DOCCS in 1982, the defendant both commenced serving his murder sentence and resumed serving his interrupted rape and attempted robbery sentences (see Penal Law § 70.30[1]; Penal Law former § 70.40[3][a]…). For the purposes of SORA, the defendant was subject to all of these sentences during his incarceration after January 19, 1982 …. Thus, the defendant was serving his rape, attempted robbery, and murder sentences on SORA's effective date in 1996, and he is subject to SORA … . People v Johnson, 2018 NY Slip Op 06045, Second Dept 9-12-18
CRIMINAL LAW (SEX OFFENSE REGISTRATION ACT, DEFENDANT'S LEVEL THREE SEX OFFENDER ADJUDICATION SHOULD NOT HAVE BEEN VACATED, HIS SENTENCE ON A SEX OFFENSE WAS INTERRUPTED WHEN THE PAROLE BOARD DECLARED HIM DELINQUENT, WHEN DEFENDANT RETURNED TO STATE CUSTODY AFTER A SUBSEQUENT MURDER CONVICTION, HIS SEX OFFENSE SENTENCE RESUMED MAKING HIM SUBJECT TO SORA (SECOND DEPT))/SEX OFFENDER REGISTRATION ACT (SORA) ( DEFENDANT'S LEVEL THREE SEX OFFENDER ADJUDICATION SHOULD NOT HAVE BEEN VACATED, HIS SENTENCE ON A SEX OFFENSE WAS INTERRUPTED WHEN THE PAROLE BOARD DECLARED HIM DELINQUENT, WHEN DEFENDANT RETURNED TO STATE CUSTODY AFTER A SUBSEQUENT MURDER CONVICTION, HIS SEX OFFENSE SENTENCE RESUMED MAKING HIM SUBJECT TO SORA (SECOND DEPT))