Another federal sentence for failing to register

As detailed in this news account, this week in Oklahoma another federal sentence has been imposed under the new Adam Walsh act for failing to register as a sex offender. Here are the basics:

Darrell Templeton soon will be back to looking for work as an Elvis impersonator, but this time he’ll be doing it as a registered sex offender.  Templeton, 47, was sentenced Wednesday to eight months in federal prison for failing to register with Oklahoma authorities after applying for a state driver’s license in January 2006.

Templeton was one of the first people in the country to be charged in federal court with failing to register as a sex offender after the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act increased the federal government’s role in such cases….

Templeton said he did not realize he had to register with Oklahoma authorities because he was not required to do so in Arizona, where he was convicted in 1989 of sexual abuse.

U.S. District Judge Vicki Miles-LaGrange noted Templeton had been arrested 32 times since he was released from prison in 1991 as she decided to sentence him to eight months in prison.  That is two more than the maximum term recommended by federal sentencing guidelines. “That probably is not enough, quite honestly,” she said.

For various reasons that can be issue-spotted in this story, I think  the failure to register provisions of the Adam Walsh act could eventually end up before the Supreme Court.