In U.S. v. Griffey, No. 09-11696 (Dec. 15, 2009), the Court affirmed a defendant’s conviction for failure to register as a sex offender, as required by the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA).
Citing U.S. v. Brown, the Court rejected claims that SORNA did not apply to Griffey because Alabama had not implemented this statute at the time he failed to register as a sex offender. The Court rejected the argument that the federal government must notify a person convicted of a sex offense of his legal duty to register under SORNA. The Court pointed out that the defendant admitted that he knew of his duty to register, and this knowledge sufficed to establish a knowing violation of the statute.
