State v. Howard, 961 N.E.2d 1196

Howard was convicted of rape in 2000 and designated a habitual sex offender under Megan’s Law with 20 years of community notification.
In 2006 Congress enacted the Adam Walsh Act, shifting sex-offender classifications to a tier system and Ohio enacted SB 10 in 2007 to implement it.
Howard was reclassified to Tier III under the AWA, triggering new notification requirements.
In 2010, Howard was charged with failure to notify the sheriff of a change of address as a Tier III offender, a first-degree felony under the AWA regime.
He pled no contest; the trial court imposed a mandatory minimum sentence based on the prior rape conviction and the AWA reclassification.
Following Bodyke, the court reinstated Howard’s original Megan’s Law classification and ordered reinstatement of its notification requirements, but the AWA reclassification and penalty provisions were deemed unconstitutional as applied.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Whether Howard could be convicted and sentenced as a first-degree felony for failure to notify.	Howard (Milby/Bodyke) argues reclassification invalid; original Megan’s Law penalties apply.	State contends AWA penalties apply post-reclassification and must stand.	Conviction reversed; remanded for resentencing under pre-AWA penalties.

State v. Bodyke, 126 Ohio St.3d 266 (2010-Ohio-2424) (severed AWA provisions; reinstated Megan’s Law registrations)
State v. Milby, 2010-Ohio-6344 (Montgomery App. 2010) (AWA penalty for failure to notify cannot exceed pre-AWA level; remanded for resentencing)
State v. Johnson, 2011-Ohio-2069 (Montgomery App. 2011) (Milby applied to third-degree vs first-degree distinction on remand)
State v. Alexander, 2011-Ohio-4015 (Montgomery App. 2011) (reinstated Megan’s Law penalties; remand consistent with Milby)