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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Eye On Boise

Idaho SupCourt upholds registration requirement for out-of-state sex offenders

The Idaho Supreme Court has unanimously rejected an appeal from a man whose 1984 rape conviction in Washington required him to register as a sex offender when he moved to Idaho, even though Idahoans don't have to register unless their sex offenses were on or after July 1, 1993. The reason: Idaho law requires anyone who was required to register as a sex offender in another state when they moved to Idaho, to register here. That was the case for Richard T. Yeoman, who was convicted in Kootenai County in 2008 for failing to register as a sex offender, a felony, after he moved to Idaho in 2007. Yeoman's appeal charged equal protection violations and a violation of his constitutional right to travel; Chief Justice Daniel Eismann wrote, "Because he was required to register while residing in Washington, it is difficult to see how the requirement that he register in this state in any way infringed upon his right to travel." You can read the opinion here.



Betsy Z. Russell
Betsy Z. Russell joined The Spokesman-Review in 1991. She currently is a reporter in the Boise Bureau covering Idaho state government and politics, and other news from Idaho's state capital.

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