When should I learn about my duty to register as a sex offender?

When you are sentenced for a sex offense, the court should inform you of your duty to register.[480] If you pled guilty or no contest to a sex offense, you should also have been informed of any registration requirement before you entered your plea.[481] In addition, when you are released from incarceration, the custody or supervision agency (that is, the parole or probation department) should inform you of your registration requirements.[482] For example, if you are in state prison, your correctional counselor and parole officer should go over the registration requirement as part of informing you about your conditions of parole (see PG. 161). See PG. 173 for a discussion of the limited situations in which you might be able to challenge a registration requirement.

  1. 480

    Cal. Penal Code § 290.017; but see Maciel v. Cate (9th Cir. 2013) 731 F.3d 928 (sex offender subject to mandatory registration requirement even though sentencing judge failed to include it in the oral and written sentencing orders).

  2. 481

    See People v. McClellan (1993) 6 Cal.4th 367, 379-381 (defendant may be allowed to withdraw guilty plea if he was not advised of mandatory registration requirement and would not have entered the plea if he had known of it); People v. Zaidi (2007) 147 Cal.App.4th 1470 (same); see also People v. Olea (1977) 59 Cal.App.4th 1289, 1298-1299 (discretionary registration requirement may not be imposed after no contest or guilty plea unless the possibility of registration was included in the plea agreement). Any challenge to the plea should be filed as soon as the defendant becomes aware of the registration requirement; otherwise, the challenge may be deemed to be untimely. See In re Douglas (2011) 200 Cal.App.4th 236.

  3. 482

    Cal. Penal Code § 290.017; Lambert v. California (1957) 355 U.S. 225, 229-230 (registration provisions violate due process if person has no knowledge of duty to register).