McClain v. State, No. 05-19-00146-CR (Tex. Ct. App. 2020)
Nature of Case: Appellant was convicted of a sex offense and sentenced to 180 days to serve in jail, plus a term of supervision. While in jail, Appellant was asked to register his address he would reside at on release, but he was homeless and had no address to register. On Appellant’s release, he did not register a new address, though attempted to do so several times but was not permitted to do so by police. Police subsequently arrested him for violating his supervision by failing to register, and the trial court revoked his supervision and imposed a life sentence of imprisonment. Appellant sought review.
Holding: Texas Court of Appeals reversed and remanded the trial court’s decision revoking Appellant’s supervision. The Court found that the record did not establish that the state demonstrated that the Appellant knew that he had a duty to register under the circumstances of his case. Furthermore, the Court found that even to the extent that the Appellant did violate the requirements, his violation was not voluntary in light of repeated police interference with his attempts to comply.