Sex Offender Registration as a Bargaining Chip

I am sometimes asked if a defendant convicted of a reportable sex crime can plea bargain his or her way out of the obligation to register. I have also been asked if a defendant convicted of a non-reportable offense can plead his or her way into registration. A formal advisory opinion from that state attorney general’s office suggests that the answer to both questions is no. The June 24, 2002 opinion letter, available here, was issued in response to a sheriff’s inquiry as to whether a particular person was required to register as a result of a federal conviction for sexual abuse of a ward. The letter concluded that the offender needed to register because that crime is substantially similar to G.S. 14-27.7(a), intercourse and sexual offense with certain victims, an offense that is reportable here. The opinion probably could have left it at that, but it went on to say that “it is our opinion that once an offender is convicted of a reportable offense . . . . the individual is subject to registration and no authority exists to alter this requirement. . . . No exceptions exist in North Carolina’s Sex Offender Registry Program either to exclude an otherwise registerable offender from the program, or to include an otherwise non-registerable offender in the program.” I tend to agree. At the most basic level, plea agreements purporting to excuse a defendant from the obligation to register for a reportable conviction appear to run afoul of G.S. 14-208.7, which says [...]