United States v. Montgomery, No. 19–20448 (5th Cir. 2020)
Nature of Case: Appellant was convicted of a sex offense in the early 90’s, and in 2018 relocated from New Jersey to Texas. While he had registered in New Jersey, he did not register when he moved to Texas and was subsequently federally indicted for failure to register. He was convicted and appealed arguing that the time he was required to comply with federal SORNA had expired.
Holding: 5th Circuit Court of Appeals vacated the conviction, agreeing that he would have only been required to comply with federal SORNA for 15 years from his release, and thus his conviction was plain error.