Did a person held as incompetent to stand trial have to register as a sex offender when released to the community?

Plain-English summary

A person had been in Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals custody because he was incompetent to stand trial on an alleged 1986 sex offense. The charges remained unresolved. In Opinion 03-0435, the Louisiana AG said the registration requirement did not apply on those facts when the person moved to a community setting.

The AG explained that incompetence delaying a trial was not the same as a deferred or withheld adjudication. The person had not stood trial, pleaded guilty, or otherwise resolved responsibility for the alleged offense. The opinion's result depended on those facts and the registration statute as it was applied in 2004.

Currency note

This opinion was issued in 2004. Subsequent statutory amendments, court decisions, or later AG opinions may have changed the analysis. Treat this page as historical context, not current legal advice. Verify current law before relying on any specific rule, deadline, or remedy mentioned here.

What the opinion meant at issuance

Department of Health and Hospitals staff

For the person described, the AG found no registration trigger under the cited law because the criminal accusation had not produced a plea, conviction, deferred adjudication, or comparable legal resolution.

Criminal justice participants

The opinion distinguished a court-approved deferral or withholding of adjudication from a case that remained unresolved solely because the accused could not stand trial. It did not decide registration for a person with a different court outcome.

Common questions

Was incompetence to stand trial itself a deferred adjudication?

No. The AG said the delay caused by incompetence was not a deferred or withheld adjudication.

Did an allegation of a sex offense alone trigger registration under this opinion?

No, not on the facts described. The AG emphasized that the old charges had not been resolved in court and that the person had not pleaded guilty or accepted responsibility.

Did the opinion decide registration after a later conviction or plea?

No. Its answer was based on the absence of any such result when the department asked.

Background and statutory framework

The department asked whether it had to register a person in its custody if he was discharged to the community. The person was accused of a 1986 offense, had been held since 1998 because he was incompetent to stand trial, and had no court resolution of the charges. The AG reviewed LSA-R.S. 15:542(A) and the then-existing definition in LSA-R.S. 15:541. It concluded that unresolved charges and incompetence alone did not satisfy the registration triggers it identified.

The extract's first-page date is damaged (JAN 8 0 2004), so no exact issue date is supplied.

Citations and references

• LSA-R.S. 15:542(A): registration triggers discussed by the AG.
• LSA-R.S. 15:541: then-existing statutory definition discussed in the opinion.

Source

• Landing page: https://www.ag.state.la.us/Opinions
• Original PDF: https://www.ag.state.la.us/Opinion/Download/03-0435

Original opinion text

DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
P.O. BOX 94005
BATON ROUGE
70804-9005
C~Rk~S C. FoTb ~R.
ATTORNEY GENERAL
JAN 8 0 2004
OPINION 03-0435

16 - A CRIMINAL LAW PROCEDURE
Frank Perez
General Counsel
LSA-RS 15:541 and LSA-RS 15:542(A)
Department of Health and Hospitals
It is the opinion of the Attorney General that the sex offender
Bureau of Legal Services
registration mandated pursuant to LSA-R.S. 15:541(A) does not
apply because of the lack of an adverse result in Court (i.e.
1201 Capitol Access Road
conviction, finding of not guilty by reason of insanity (at trial), a
P. O. Box 3836
deferred adjudication, adjudication withheld and/or some
comparable resolution resulting in the defendant having been
Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70821-3836
adiudaed leaallv resl~onsible for the offense charaed).

Dear Mr. Perez:

This office has received your opinion request dated November 25, 2003, regarding whether the underlined provision of LSA-R.S. 15:542(A) means that you must register an individual in your custody as a sex offender if he is discharged to a community setting.

Your request for an opinion relates to a specific person in your custody. The specific facts relating to this person (and therefore this Opinion) are as follows:
(a) the individual in your custody is alleged to have committed a sex offense in the year 1986; (b) the criminal charges against the individual for the alle.qed sex offense in 1986 have not been resolved in Court; (c) this individual has been in the custody of the Department of Health and Hospitals since 1998 because of his incompetence to stand trial for the alleged sex offense at issue herein.

LSA-R.S. 15:542(A) states: "Any adult residing in this state who has pied guilty to, has been convicted of or where adjudication has been deferred or withheld for the perpetration or attempted perpetration of any sex offense ... shall register with the sheriff of the parish of the person’s residence."

According to LSA-R.S. 15:541, "sex offense" is statutorily defined to mean "deferred adjudication, adjudication withheld, or conviction for the perpetration or attempted perpetration ... committed on or after June 18, 1992, or committed prior to June 18, 1992, if the person, as a result of the offense, is under the custody of the Department of Public Safety and Corrections on or after June 18, 1992."

Relating to the underlined provisions of LSA-R.S. 15:542(A) as regards the terms "where adjudication has been deferred or withheld," it is the opinion of the Attorney General that "deferred adjudication" and adjudication withheld" are

Page 2

Frank Perez
OPINION 03-0435
Page 2

terms of art relating specifically to criminal cases where a defendant has knowingly and voluntarily resolved his case by either making some form of admission of guilt or by agreeing with the Court to take responsibility for the crime charged in return for some form of probationary type of sentence. In contrast, the mere fact of a delay caused by the fact that a defendant is incompetent to proceed to trial does not describe a case where adjudication has been "deferred" or "withheld".

Therefore, predicated on the specific facts set forth above wherein (a) the alleged offender has neither stood trial, entered a plea of guilty, or otherwise taken responsibility for having committed the crime charged, it is the opinion of the Attorney General that the sex offender registration mandated pursuant to LSA- R.S. 15:541(A) does not apply because of the lack of an adverse result in Court (i.e. conviction, finding of not guilty by reason of insanity (at trial), a deferred adjudication, adjudication withheld and/or some comparable resolution resulting in the defendant having been adjudged legally responsible for the offense charged).

Very truly yours,

CHARLES C. FOTI, JR. ,(

BY:
STE~EN C. MARi-IN~
ASSISTANT ATTORNEY GENERAL