United States v. Holcombe
Opinion of the Court
Thomas Abdul Holcombe, a sex offender subject to the requirements of the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA or the Act), was convicted after a bench trial in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (Briccetti, J. ) of failing to update his registration when he moved from New York to Maryland. SORNA makes it a crime for a sex offender who is required to register under the Act and who "travels in interstate ... commerce" to "knowingly fail[ ] to register or update a registration as required by [the Act]."
After determining that a defendant must travel interstate in order to violate Section 2250(a), and citing Section 3237(a), the District Court concluded that Holcombe's offense "beg[a]n" in the Southern District of New York (SDNY) and that venue was *14proper there because Holcombe traveled from the SDNY to Maryland. The District Court also rejected Holcombe's arguments that SORNA is void for vagueness and violates his constitutional right to travel, and summarily rejected a number of other arguments foreclosed by settled precedent. We AFFIRM .
BACKGROUND
After pleading guilty in 1992 to attempted rape in the first degree under State law, Holcombe was required under SORNA to register as a sex offender and keep his registration current in any State where he resides. In 1996, while still in prison, Holcombe registered as a state sex offender in New York. He did so by completing a New York State Sex Offender Registration Form, on which he indicated that he would reside in Peekskill, New York (in the SDNY) after his release and promised to notify his "local law enforcement agency" and the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services "in writing of any change of home address within 10 days before" he moved. App'x 60.
Holcombe was released from prison in 1998. Thereafter, he drifted in and out of prison for committing various crimes, including failure to comply with his sex offender registration obligations. In April 2013 Holcombe left the Westchester County Jail (in the SDNY) and updated his address to a residence in Peekskill, New York (in the SDNY), where, it turns out, he never resided. Instead, he moved to Maryland, where he lived for at least eighteen months without updating his New York registration or registering as a sex offender in Maryland.
In May 2015 Holcombe was charged in the District Court for the SDNY with failing to register and update his registration as a sex offender as required by SORNA. After unsuccessfully moving to dismiss the indictment on various grounds, including that the SDNY was an improper venue, Holcombe proceeded with a bench trial on stipulated facts. The District Court convicted Holcombe of one count of knowingly failing to register and update his registration as required by SORNA and sentenced him on April 27, 2016. Holcombe completed his term of imprisonment on March 14, 2017.
This appeal followed.
DISCUSSION
SORNA "establishes a comprehensive national system for the registration of [sex] offenders."
*15provides that anyone required to register under the Act who "travels in interstate ... commerce ... [and] knowingly fails to register or update a registration ... shall be fined ... or imprisoned not more than 10 years, or both."
Although Holcombe mounts several challenges to his conviction under SORNA, we focus on the three challenges that are not squarely foreclosed by precedent: (1) whether venue was proper in the SDNY; (2) whether SORNA is void for vagueness; and (3) whether SORNA violates Holcombe's constitutional right to travel. We review each of these legal questions de novo. See United States v. Gundy,
1. Venue
A criminal defendant must be tried in the district where the crime was committed. U.S. Const. amend. VI ; Fed. R. Crim. P. 18. In determining where a crime was committed, we consider Section 3237(a), which governs venue. That statute provides that an offense "begun in one district and completed in another, or committed in more than one district, may be ... prosecuted in any district in which such offense was begun, continued, or completed." Id.; see United States v. Lange,
Holcombe stipulated that he left New York and moved to Maryland and then failed to register with Maryland authorities when he established a residence there, in violation of
But where was his SORNA offense "begun"? The majority of our sister circuits that have addressed the issue have held that a SORNA offense begins under Section 3237(a) in the district that the defendant leaves, not in the district where the defendant's interstate travel ends and in which the defendant ultimately fails to register. See United States v. Kopp,
The Eighth Circuit's decision in United States v. Lunsford,
In agreeing with a majority of our sister circuits, we must respectfully disagree with the analysis in United States v. Haslage,
We note, too, that Nichols did not address venue, and involved a defendant who was a federal sex offender, not, as here, a state sex offender. See
2. Void for Vagueness
SORNA requires a sex offender to "register[ ] and keep the registration current[ ] in each jurisdiction where the offender resides."
We easily reject Holcombe's vagueness challenge. Where, as here, First Amendment rights are not implicated, we evaluate such a challenge "in light of the specific facts of the case at hand" and not with regard to the facial validity of the criminal statute or regulation at issue. See United States v. Nadi,
Had Holcombe lived in Maryland for a far shorter period of time, his argument might have been stronger. Because Holcombe lived in Maryland for at least eighteen months, however, SORNA's use of the word "resides" is not void for vagueness in this case: Holcombe was on fair notice that his continuous residence in Maryland for at least eighteen months easily satisfied the thirty-day requirement, however Maryland calculated it. No one could read the statute and Guidelines and reasonably come away thinking that he did not need to update his registration after eighteen months.
3. Right to Travel
Holcombe also argues that SORNA's registration requirements violate his constitutional right to travel. "Although the Supreme Court has suggested that '[t]he textual source of the constitutional right to travel, or, more precisely, the right of free interstate migration, ... has proved elusive,' " Selevan v. N.Y. Thruway Auth.,
As an initial matter, we are inclined to think that SORNA's registration requirements do not even implicate the fundamental right to travel because nothing in SORNA stops a sex offender from "enter[ing] [or] leav[ing] another State" if the offender chooses to permanently relocate.
*18Saenz,
And even assuming that SORNA's registration requirements implicate the right to travel, we conclude that the burdens imposed by the registration scheme narrowly serve the Government's compelling interest in addressing "the deficiencies in prior law that had enabled sex offenders to slip through the cracks." Carr,
For these reasons, SORNA's registration requirement does not violate Holcombe's right to travel.
4. Remaining Challenges
Finally, Holcombe acknowledges that his claims based on the non-delegation doctrine, the Ex Post Facto Clause, the Commerce Clause, and the Tenth Amendment, as well as his argument that SORNA cannot be applied to him because New York has not yet implemented the statute, are all squarely foreclosed by Guzman,
CONCLUSION
We have considered Holcombe's remaining arguments and conclude that they are without merit. For the foregoing reasons, the judgment of the District Court is AFFIRMED .
The registration provisions of the statute,
(a) In general
A sex offender shall register, and keep the registration current, in each jurisdiction where the offender resides, where the offender is an employee, and where the offender is a student. For initial registration purposes only, a sex offender shall also register in the jurisdiction in which convicted if such jurisdiction is different from the jurisdiction of residence.
(b) Initial registration
The sex offender shall initially register-
(1) before completing a sentence of imprisonment with respect to the offense giving rise to the registration requirement; or
(2) not later than 3 business days after being sentenced for that offense, if the sex offender is not sentenced to a term of imprisonment.
(c) Keeping the registration current
A sex offender shall, not later than 3 business days after each change of name, residence, employment, or student status, appear in person in at least 1 jurisdiction involved pursuant to subsection (a) and inform that jurisdiction of all changes in the information required for that offender in the sex offender registry. That jurisdiction shall immediately provide that information to all other jurisdictions in which the offender is required to register.
Holcombe's reliance on United States v. Miller, No. 2:10-CR-196,
Reference
- Full Case Name
- United States v. Thomas Abdul HOLCOMBE
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- Published