Commonwealth v. Wilson
Commonwealth v. Wilson
Opinion of the Court
OPINION
We review whether the provisions of Megan’s Law
I.
MEGAN’S LAW
Megan’s Law II, 42 Pa.C.S. §§ 9791-9799.9, was enacted to “protect the safety and general welfare of the people of this Commonwealth by providing for registration and community notification regarding sexually violent predators who are about to be released from custody and will live in or near their neighborhood.” 42 Pa.C.S. § 9791(b). The Act sets forth certain reporting requirements with which an offender must comply following his release from incarceration. These requirements are not only applicable to anyone deemed a sexually violent predator (SVP), but also to an offender not designated an SVP
Megan’s Law II mandates that any offender who is convicted of any of the Act’s predicate offenses must: (1) register his current residence or intended residence with state police upon
Megan’s Law II classifies offenders in three separate categories. Depending upon the category into which an offender fits, the Act designates the length of time he must comply with the above reporting requirements, as well as the sanction imposed for non-compliance. An offender is classified according to his adjudication as an SVP or the nature of the predicate crime for which he was convicted. The classifications are: (1) an offender adjudicated an SVP; (2) a non-SVP convicted of one of the more severe crimes enumerated in 42 Pa.C.S. § 9795.1(b)(2) (non-SVP, lifetime reporter)
BACKGROUND
On August 13, 2001, Appellee, Gerald F. Wilson, pled guilty to aggravated indecent assault, 18 Pa.C.S. § 3125, and indecent assault, 18 Pa.C.S. § 3126. Wilson was sentenced to eleven-and-a-half months to twenty-three-and a-half months of incarceration, to be followed by a ten year term of probation. Both aggravated indecent assault and indecent assault are predicate crimes under Megan’s Law. Aggravated indecent assault falls within the scope of 42 Pa.C.S. § 9795.1(b)(2), subjecting Appellee to the lifetime reporting requirements.
Once released from incarceration, Appellee complied with the applicable reporting requirements by registering his Spring Township, Centre County address with the Pennsylvania State Police. Subsequently, Appellee sought to move to Montana. He attempted to have his probation and parole transferred to that state; however, Montana refused to assume Appellee’s supervision. Ignoring Montana’s refusal, Appellee moved there. He failed to inform the Pennsylvania State Police of his move. Moreover, he failed to provide the Pennsylvania State Police with his annual address verification. Centre County’s Probation Office issued a warrant for his arrest for probation violations.
Subsequently, he was arrested in Montana, returned to Pennsylvania, and then charged with two violations of Megan’s Law II for failing to register his address with the Pennsylva
In March 2004, Appellee filed a Motion to Quash the indictment on the Megan’s Law II violations. He relied on the decision of the same trial court in Commonwealth v. Killinger, 64 Pa.D. & C. 4th 369 (Ct.Com.Pl.Centre Co. 2003).
The Commonwealth argues that the trial court erred in ruling that criminal liability for reporting violations for nonSVPs is unconstitutional. Accordingly, the Commonwealth urges a narrow reading of Williams II, arguing the decision severed only the penalty provisions that we found in violation of Apprendi v. New Jersey, 530 U.S. 466, 120 S.Ct. 2348, 147 L.Ed.2d 435 (2000), as applicable to SVPs, but did not find the entire scheme of separate criminal prosecutions for violating Megan’s Law’s reporting provisions unconstitutional. The
Appellee Wilson agrees with the trial court and argues that convicting an offender of a first-degree felony for failing to report, register, or verify his address is unduly oppressive and unreasonable, thereby violating due process. He contends that Williams II severed all mandatory penalties of Megan’s Law for all categories of offenders, not just SVPs, because “such measures are manifestly in excess of what is needed to ensure compliance.” Williams II, 832 A.2d at 986. Appellee’s Brief at 5. According to Wilson, convicting a violator of a first-degree felony and subjecting him to the penalties proscribed under the Sentencing Guidelines similarly constitutes manifest excessiveness and undue oppression. Wilson acknowledges that his case is similar to Killinger in that neither case involved a finding of SVP status. However, he distinguishes the case, arguing the substantive consequences of this case differ radically from Killinger based on the severity of the potential punishment Wilson faces compared to Killinger. We disagree.
After a careful review of Williams II and Killinger, we agree with the Commonwealth. The portions of Megan’s Law authorizing criminal prosecutions for failing to comply with the Act’s reporting requirements are constitutional.
III.
DISCUSSION
Resolution of this issue requires an examination of our holdings in Commonwealth v. Williams, 574 Pa. 487, 832 A.2d 962 (2003) (Williams II) and Commonwealth v. Killinger, 585
Pursuant to Megan’s Law II, SVP status was to be determined by a judge using a “clear and convincing” standard of proof. 42 Pa.C.S. § 9795.4(e)(3). Williams II, 832 A.2d at 968. Once determined to be an SVP, the offender is subjected to the Act’s lifetime registration, notification, and counseling requirements. Failure to comply with the Act’s requirements resulted in a conviction of a first-degree felony, with a mandatory minimum punishment of lifetime probation and a maximum penalty of lifetime imprisonment, 42 Pa.C.S. § 9795.2(d)(2) (repealed), a penalty beyond the otherwise applicable statutory maximum of twenty years for a first-degree felony. 18 Pa.C.S. § 1103(1). Williams II initially required us to determine whether the registration, notification, and counseling requirements themselves constituted criminal punishment. Where an SVP is involved, if the lifetime requirements are found to be criminal punishment, Apprendi necessitates their invalidation, as the punishments would extend beyond any statutory maximum predicated on a finding by a judge employing a diminished standard of proof.
Previously, in Commonwealth v. Gaffney, 557 Pa. 327, 334, 733 A.2d 616, 619-20 (1999), a companion case to Williams I, to determine whether the Act’s reporting requirements are penal in nature thereby constituting criminal punishment, we utilized the Artway/Verniero test promulgated by the Third Circuit Court of Appeals. See Artway v. Attorney General of
The Artway/Vemiero standard involves three elements, legislative (subjective) intent, objective intent or purpose[,] and effects. Under the first element, the court looks to whether the adverse effect upon the individual results from a desire by the Legislature “to punish past conduct or is [instead] a by-product of a bona fide legislative effort to remedy a perceived societal problem.” Verniero, 119 F.3d at 1093. The second inquiry focuses primarily upon whether analogous measures have been regarded as punishment in the past. Under this prong, the challenged statute will be deemed punitive if any of several conditions is met: (a) the measure’s adverse effects cannot be explained solely by its remedial purpose; (b) similar measures have historically been considered punitive; or (c) if the legislature intended the measure to serve a mixture of deterrent and salutary purposes, the deterrent purpose is an unnecessary complement to, or overwhelms, the measure’s salutary operation, or the measure operates in an unusual manner or is inconsistent with its historically mixed purposes. See Verniero, 119 F.3d at 1093. The final Artway/Verniero prong examines whether the “sting of a measure is so harsh as a matter of degree that it constitutes punishment.” Artway, 81 F.3d 1235.
Williams II, 832 A.2d at 970-71 (certain citations omitted).
However, at the time Gaffney was decided, the United States Supreme Court had not yet addressed whether Megan’s Law’s reporting requirements were unconstitutionally punitive. Since that time, the Supreme Court decided Smith v. Doe, 538 U.S. 84, 123 S.Ct. 1140, 155 L.Ed.2d 164 (2003), where the Court employed its traditional two-level inquiry and held that the reporting requirements of Alaska’s Megan’s Law were non-punitive. The Court’s traditional test requires a court to first “inquire whether the legislature’s intent was to impose punishment, and, if not, whether the statutory scheme is nonetheless so punitive either in purpose
(1) whether the sanction involves an affirmative disability or restraint; (2) whether it has historically been regarded as punishment; (3) whether it comes into play only on a finding of scienter; (4) whether its operation will promote the traditional aims of punishment — retribution and deterrence; (5) whether the behavior to which it applies is already a crime; (6) whether an alternative purpose to which it may rationally be connected is assignable for it; and (7) whether it appears excessive in relation to the alternative purpose assigned.
Williams II, 832 A.2d at 973, citing Mendoza-Martinez 372 U.S. at 168-69, 83 S.Ct. 554. Because Smith involved the reporting requirements of Megan’s Law, we found the Supreme Court’s two-pronged approach to be the proper method to analyze Pennsylvania’s Megan’s Law’s requirements to determine whether they are unconstitutionally punitive as well. After a lengthy examination of the Mendoza-Martinez factors, we ultimately concluded that the Act’s registration, notification, and counseling requirements were non-punitive. Id., 574 Pa. at 524-25, 832 A.2d at 984. The reporting requirements did not implicate the Apprendi rule. Id. However, we then examined the penalty provisions applicable to SVPs
Critical to our determination was the statutory requirement to sentence an SVP who failed to comply with a mandatory minimum term of lifetime probation up to a maximum penalty of life in prison. Appellee suggests we invalidated the provisions because they were “manifestly excessive.” While we did characterize the measures as “manifestly in excess of what is needed to ensure compliance,” Williams II, 574 Pa. at 527, 832 A.2d at 962, easily finding them punitive, we invalidated them because the process by which an offender was deemed an SVP could not, consistent with Apprendi, support additional criminal punishment beyond the maximum that was otherwise imposable. We elucidated this concept again in Killinger:
The excessiveness of the penalty in Williams II, however, merely underscored the impropriety of the penalty under Apprendi. Indeed, the penalty’s excessiveness affected the outcome only insofar as excessiveness was an aspect of the inquiry regarding the punitive nature of the penalty called for under Apprendi pursuant to the factors enumerated in Mendoza-Martinez.
Killinger, 888 A.2d at 600.
The SVP classification was not proven to a jury beyond a reasonable doubt, which Apprendi requires. The statute required a finding by a judge applying a lesser standard of clear and convincing evidence. Former 42 Pa.C.S. § 9795.4(e)(3).
An individual subject to registration under section 9795.1(b)(1), (2), or (3) who fails to register with the Pennsylvania State Police as required in this section commits a felony of the first degree and shall be sentenced to a mandatory minimum sentence of probation for the remainder of the individual’s lifetime and may be sentenced to a period of incarceration of up to the individual’s lifetime.
Similarly, former § 9796(e)(2) provided:
An individual subject to registration under section 9795.1(b)(1), (2), or (3) who fails to verify his address as required in this section commits a felony of the first degree and shall be sentenced to a mandatory minimum sentence of probation for the remainder of the individual’s lifetime and may be sentenced to a period of incarceration of up to the individual’s lifetime.
To be clear, the language “, or (3)” must be stricken from the Act in order to sever SVPs from the applicability of these punishment provisions. Further, to properly interpret the Act, as it remains applicable to certain non-SVP offenders pursuant to § 9795.1(b)(1) and (2), we must insert the word “or” between (b)(1) and (2) in former § 9795.2(d)(2) and § 9796(e)(2).
In Killinger, we answered a question left open by Williams II: whether the milder sanction imposed on non-SVP, ten year reporters who fail to comply with the Act’s registration provisions, 42 Pa.C.S. § 9795.2(d)(1) (repealed), is unconstitu
Killinger was released and subsequently failed to comply with the Act’s reporting requirements. He was arrested and charged with two violations under 42 Pa.C.S. § 9795.2(a)(2)(i), both third-degree felonies. See 42 Pa.C.S. § 9795.2(d)(1). He filed a pre-trial motion to dismiss the charges, claiming § 9795.2(d)(1) was unconstitutional. The trial court granted the motion finding that Williams II “invalidated the sanctions for non-compliance applicable to non-SVP offenders as well as the mandatory lifetime sanctions for SVP offenders expressly invalidated in that case.” Killinger, 888 A.2d at 596. See also Killinger, 64 Pa. D. & C. 4th at 380. We reversed and found the Act, as applied to non-SVPs, to be constitutional.
After a review of Williams II, we stated:
... the sanction challenged in this case does not offend the United States Constitution under Apprendi and progeny. The sanction attaches to Appellee pursuant to his conviction for a predicate offense under the Act, an event that in itself does not implicate the constitutional issue addressed by Apprendi. No judicial fact-finding, nor any fact-finding by a diminished standard of proof, triggered a status relevant to the severity of the penalty, as was the case in Williams II.
Killinger, 888 A.2d at 600-01.
The case before us presents a constitutional challenge similar to that in Killinger. However, Appellee is classified as a non-SVP, lifetime reporter. Thus, failure to comply with the lifetime requirements results in a first-degree felony. 42
The instant case is immediately distinguishable from Williams II. It falls within the sound reasoning of Killinger. In Williams II, the factors which led to our invalidation of the SVP penalty provisions stemmed from the process by which the SVP determination itself was effectuated. Only where a judge, rather than jury, makes an SVP determination by a diminished standard of proof was an offender subject to the lifetime penalty provisions. This violated Apprendi. Logically, then, where an offender is not adjudicated an SVP, the constitutional concerns present in Williams II are not implicated. For this reason, this part of Williams II does not control the disposition of the case at bar.
Here, the Appellee, after being convicted of a predicate offense delineated in the Act, was
subject to the penalty for the underlying offense, the applicable registration provisions of Megan’s Law II, and the sanctions imposed upon violation of these provisions, all of which are plainly visible on the face of the governing statute, and none of which depend on judicial fact-finding under a diminished standard of proof.
Killinger, 888 A.2d at 600. The reporting requirements and penalties for non-compliance are merely a consequence of the offender’s underlying conviction for the predicate offense and raise no Apprendi concerns. Thus, Killinger controls the disposition of this case and we find that the Act’s provisions imposing criminal liability for non-compliance are constitutional.
Appellee concedes that this case is facially similar to Killinger, yet maintains that this case should be controlled by
In his Motion to Quash, Appellee argued that sections 9795.2(d) and 9796(e) of the Act were “constitutionally infirm because they bear no rational relationship to a legitimate state interest.” Further, Appellee averred that the sections “violate due process, bill of attainder, ex post facto, and cruel and unusual punishment provisions of the United States and Pennsylvania Constitutions.” See Appellee’s Motion to Quash dated March 17, 2004, at 2, paragraphs 10 and 11, R. 6a. The trial court, as aforementioned, quashed the indictment relying on its opinion in Killinger, and adopted that opinion for the instant case. R. 31a. In the trial court’s opinion in Killinger, it expressly declined to address similar claims made by Killinger, instead mistakenly relying on Williams II. See Killinger, 64 Pa. D. & C. 4th at 375. As such, the lower court has not thoroughly reviewed Appellee’s excessiveness claim. Consequently, because Appellee’s excessiveness claim is not squarely before us, we, too, decline to address it now. It must be noted, however, as the non-aggrieved party, Appellee had no duty to cross-appeal to preserve the remaining claims in his Motion to Quash and, therefore, those claims are not waived. See Pa.R.A.P. 501.
. 42 Pa.C.S. §§ 9791-9799.9. Act of May 10, 2000, P.L. 74, No. 18. This is the second enactment of Megan’s Law. A substantial portion of "Megan's Law I,” Act of Oct. 24, 1995, P.L. 1079, Spec. Session No. 1, was ruled unconstitutional by this Court in Commonwealth v. Williams, 557 Pa. 285, 733 A.2d 593 (1999) (Williams I).
. See 42 Pa.C.S. § 9795.4 (procedure for SVP determination); 42 Pa.C.S. § 9792 (definition of SVP).
. The offenses that subject a non-SVP offender to the lifetime reporting requirement are 18 Pa.C.S. § 3121 (rape); 18 Pa.C.S. § 3123 (involuntary deviate sexual intercourse); 18 Pa.C.S. § 3124.1 (sexual assault);
. The enumerated crimes giving rise to the ten year reporting requirement are 18 Pa.C.S. § 2901 (kidnapping) where the victim is a minor; 18 Pa.C.S. § 3126 (indecent assault) where the offense is a misdemean- or of the first degree; 18 Pa.C.S. § 4302 (incest) where the victim is 12 years of age or older but under 18 years of age; 18 Pa.C.S. § 5902(b) (prostitution and related offenses) where the actor promotes the prostitution of a minor; 18 Pa.C.S. § 5903(a)(3),(4), (5), or (6) (obscene and other sexual materials and performances) where the victim is a minor; 18 Pa.C.S. § 6312 (sexual abuse of children); 18 Pa.C.S. § 6318 (unlawful contact with minor); and 18 Pa.C.S. § 6320 (sexual exploitation of children). Further, individuals convicted of an attempt to commit any of the above listed crimes or an attempt to commit any of the crimes listed in 42 Pa.C.S. § 9795.1(b)(2), see supra note 3, are also subject to the ten year reporting requirement. See 42 Pa.C.S. § 9795.1(a)(1).
. Prior to our decision in Williams II, failure to comply as a lifetime reporter resulted in a mandatory minimum sentence of lifetime probation and a maximum of lifetime imprisonment. See infra for a discussion on Williams II. As a result of that decision, the General Assembly repealed the penalty provisions in 42 Pa.C.S. § 9795.2(d)(1) and (2). See Act of Nov. 24, 2004, P.L. 1243, No. 152, § 8. The penalty provi
Although the penalty provisions have been repealed and replaced, this matter is not moot. As stated in our decisions in Williams II and Commonwealth v. Killinger, 585 Pa. 92, 888 A.2d 592 (2005), the Appellee, as well as many other litigants sentenced under the original Act have a vested interest in our decision. On November 24, 2004, the General Assembly enacted 18 Pa.C.S. § 4915, effective January 23, 2005, which defines the criminal offenses and grading for violations of the Act’s registration requirements. The section replaced the criminal liability provisions previously defined in the Act itself. Nonetheless, any offender sentenced to comply with Megan’s Law II prior to the effective date of 18 Pa.C.S. § 4915 is governed by the Act’s criminal liability and offense gradation provisions, not 18 Pa.C.S. § 4915.
. This decision was the basis for our decision in Commonwealth v. Killinger, 585 Pa. 92, 888 A.2d 592 (2005), discussed infra.
. We have jurisdiction over this matter pursuant to 42 Pa.C.S. § 722(7), which provides:
The Supreme Court shall have exclusive jurisdiction of appeals from final orders of the courts of common pleas in the following classes of cases:
(7) Matters where the court of common pleas has held invalid as repugnant to the Constitution, treaties or laws of the United States, or to the Constitution of this Commonwealth ... any statute of this Commonwealth....
. SVPs were subject to the applicable penalty provisions via then existing 42 Pa.C.S. § 9795.1(b)(3).
. Former 42 Pa.C.S. § 9795.2(d)(2) provided:
An individual subject to registration under section 9795.1(b)(1), (2), or (3) who fails to register with the Pennsylvania State Police as*571 required in this section commits a felony of the first degree and shall be sentenced to a mandatory minimum sentence of probation for the remainder of the individual’s lifetime and may be sentenced to a period of incarceration of up to the individual’s lifetime.
. Similarly, former 42 Pa.C.S. § 9796(e)(2) provided:
An individual subject to registration under section 9795.1(b)(1), (2), or (3) who fails to verify his address as required in this section commits a felony of the first degree and shall be sentenced to a mandatory minimum sentence of probation for the remainder of the individual’s lifetime and may be sentenced to a period of incarceration of up to the individual's lifetime.
. “Words and phrases which may be necessary to the proper interpretation of a statute and which do not conflict with its obvious purpose and intent, nor any way affect its scope and operation, may be added in the construction thereof.” See 1 Pa.C.S. § 1923(c).
. 18 Pa.C.S. § 3126(a)(7).
. The statutory maximum punishment for a third-degree felony is seven years. 18 Pa.C.S. § 1103(3).
Concurring Opinion
concurring.
I agree with the majority that Commonwealth v. Killinger, 585 Pa. 92, 888 A.2d 592 (2005), controls, and the trial court’s order should be reversed. However, I would put aside any discussion of other Megan’s Law concerns which are not before the Court at this time.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania, Appellant v. Gerald E. WILSON, Appellee
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- 11 cases
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- Published