J-A33026-16
NON-PRECEDENTIAL DECISION - SEE SUPERIOR COURT I.O.P. 65.37
COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA IN THE SUPERIOR COURT OF
PENNSYLVANIA
Appellee
v.
JOSHUA R. CRAMER
Appellant No. 432 WDA 2016
Appeal from the Judgment of Sentence February 23, 2016
In the Court of Common Pleas of Armstrong County
Criminal Division at No(s): CP-03-CR-0000601-2014
BEFORE: LAZARUS, J., SOLANO, J., and STRASSBURGER, J.*
JUDGMENT ORDER BY SOLANO, J.: FILED JANUARY 24, 2017
Appellant, Joshua R. Cramer, appeals from the judgment of sentence
imposed after a jury convicted him of six counts of possession of child
pornography and one count of criminal use of a communications facility.1
Appellant challenges the lifetime registration requirement to which he was
sentenced under the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act, 42
Pa.C.S. §§ 9799.10–9799.41 (SORNA). Specifically, Appellant presents one
issue for our review:
Where [Appellant] is tried and convicted at a single trial on
six (6) Counts of Possession of Child Pornography in violation of
18 Pa.C.S.A. § 6312(d) (a Tier I SORNA offense), was
____________________________________________
*
Retired Senior Judge assigned to the Superior Court.
1
18 Pa.C.S. §§ 6312(d) and 7512(a), respectively.
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[Appellant] wrongfully required to register as a Tier III lifetime
multiple offender registrant under SORNA as opposed to a Tier I
fifteen (15) year registrant?
Appellant’s Brief at 5.
The Commonwealth agrees that Appellant is entitled to relief, stating:
In light of controlling decisional authority issued by the
Pennsylvania Supreme Court during the pendency of
[Appellant’s] appeal, he is correct that he should properly be
classified as a Tier-I sexual offender under SORNA and thus be
subject to the attendant fifteen year registration requirement.
Commonwealth Brief at 2. The Commonwealth acknowledges that, “given
this new controlling authority, the Commonwealth must concede that
[Appellant’s] convictions for multiple violations of 18 Pa.C.S.A. § 6312(d),
which resulted from a single search of his residence and computer, a single
arrest, and a single prosecution, in the absence of an intervening conviction
and subsequent recidivist act, properly classify him as a Tier-I offender . . .
and thus subject him to the fifteen year registration obligation called for by
42 Pa.C.S.A. § 9799.15(a)(1). Id. at 3-4.
We agree. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s decisions in the
companion cases of A.S. v. Pennsylvania State Police, 143 A.3d 896 (Pa.
2016), and Commonwealth v. Lutz-Morrison, 143 A.3d 891 (Pa. 2016),
were issued on August 15, 2016, after the trial court in this case sentenced
Appellant to lifetime registration. The Supreme Court in Lutz-Morrison
observed that SORNA “established a three-tiered system for classifying
offenses and their corresponding registration periods,” and that the provision
calling for lifetime registration when there have been multiple offenses under
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SORNA’s lower tiers “requires an act, a conviction, and a subsequent act to
trigger lifetime registration for multiple offenses otherwise subject to a
fifteen- or twenty-five-year period of registration.” Lutz-Morrison, 143
A.3d at 892, 894–95 (emphasis added). Appellant’s case is not one in which
there was an act, a conviction, and a subsequent act.
Accordingly, with the benefit of the Supreme Court’s recent statutory
construction, we vacate the lifetime registration portion of Appellant’s
sentence and remand for imposition of a fifteen-year reporting requirement
under SORNA. In all other respects, Appellant’s judgment of sentence is
affirmed. Jurisdiction relinquished.
Judgment Entered.
Joseph D. Seletyn, Esq.
Prothonotary
Date: 1/24/2017
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