Simultaneous Sentencing on Two CSC Pleas Does Not Trigger Lifetime Conditional Release

State v. Nodes, Minn.Ct.App., 6/16/2014.  Review granted, 9/24/2014.  The state charged Mr. Nodes with two counts of criminal sexual conduct for two separate incidents against two different juveniles.  He pled guilty to both counts.  So:  offense, offense; conviction conviction.  Mr. Nodes has no prior convictions for criminal sexual conduct.  The state wanted the court to order a lifetime conditional release period.  The trial court said, no.

The conditional release statute says that a lifetime conditional release period is required where a defendant has a “previous or prior sex offense conviction.”  Minn.Stat. 609.3455, Subd. 7(b).  So, what’s a “previous” and what’s a “prior” sex offense conviction?  The statute answers both of those questions.

“Previous sex offense conviction” means “the offender was convicted and sentenced for a sex offense before the commission of the present offense.”  Subdivision 1(g). 

“Prior sex offense conviction” means “the offender was convicted of committing a sex offense before the offender has been convicted of the present offense, regardless of whether the offender was convicted for the first offense before the commission of the present offense, and the convictions involved separate behavioral incidents.” Id., subd. 1(g). 

The state said that after the trial court had sentenced Mr. Nodes on the first offense then it became a “prior sex offense conviction” that triggered the lifetime conditional release.  Both the trial court and the court of appeals reject this interpretation.  Among other things, a conviction requires a “formal adjudication of guilt” that has been accepted and recorded by the court; the mere pronouncement in court doesn’t cut it.  Cf.:  Taylor v. State, 2013 WL 5024157 (Minn.Ct.App. 2013).  (“[T]his court has also made clear that ‘an orally pronounced sentence controls over a judgment and commitment order when the two conflict.’” State v. Staloch, 643 N.W.2d 329, 331 (Minn.App.2002).  Taylor, notwithstanding (and unpublished) the court of appeals concluded that the trial court’s acceptance of the two guilty pleas is not a “conviction” until the computer spits out the warrant of commitment.  Mr. Nodes’ two “convictions” thus occurred at the same time; neither preceded the other.