Court: State gun registry is not retroactive

A requirement in state law that individuals convicted of gun-related crimes who are released into the community after January 1, 2014 register with a state registry does not apply to a man convicted of murder prior to the law passing. A recent appellate court ruling overturned a prior finding that would have required Tommy Townsend, currently serving a 25-year sentence for murder, to join the registry despite being convicted prior to the law passing.

Townsend was arrested in 2000 on charges of murder, carrying a pistol without a permit, criminal possession of a weapon, and criminal possession of a pistol or revolver.

In 2022, Townsend accepted a plea deal and entered an Alford plea, which allows a defendant to plead guilty and accept a sentence while still maintaining innocence. As part of the deal, Townsend accepted a 25-year sentence for one count of murder. The state nolled the gun charges.

But the state failed to notify Townsend that he would be required to register with the state’s Deadly Weapon Offender Registry (DWOR) when he was released from prison.

Under state statute written in 2013, an individual who has been convicted of a crime involving the use of a deadly weapon and who is released on or after January 1, 2014 has to register for the DWOR with the commissioner of the Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection.

The statute also requires that any person who accepts a guilty plea for an offense involving use of a deadly weapon be informed by the court that they will be required to register with the DWOR.

Townsend sought a writ of habeas corpus, a legal motion seeking a court to determine whether their imprisonment is unlawful, on the basis that his Alford plea violated his due process rights because he was not informed of the requirement that he register with the DWOR.

Part of the issue in the case stems from the law being passed after Townsend’s conviction. Townsend was convicted in 2002, but the statute became law in 2014. But the law still affected Townsend because it required anyone released from prison after January 1, 2014 who was convicted of a gun-related crime to register with the DWOR.

In responding to Townsend’s writ of habeas corpus, the department of the Commissioner of Correction admitted that Townsend would be subject to the DWOR requirement when he was released.

Townsend’s writ was denied, with the court finding that the failure to advise Townsend of a collateral consequence to his plea deal that did not exist at the time it was entered was not a violation of his due process rights.

Townsend then appealed the finding to the state appeals court, which found there was a “substantial question” about whether the statute applied. Ultimately, the court found that that the habeas courts’ ruling that the 2014 statute applied to Townsends’ conviction was incorrect. The court found the law does not apply to Townsend’s 2002 conviction.

According to the court’s findings, the plain text of the law “expressly limits the registration requirement set forth therein to offenders of eligible crimes who are both convicted of an offense committed with a deadly weapon and released into the community on or after January 1, 2014.”

The court also found that any question about whether the law applied to Townsend because he will be  released after January 1, 2014 is answered by another section in the law requiring a court inform a defendant of the requirement prior to accepting a plea deal. The court found this section of the law would “be rendered meaningless in the context of an otherwise eligible conviction rendered prior to January 1, 2014.”

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