Court Upholds Sex Offender Registration Idaho Justices Let Stand Former Athol Man’s Conviction For Failing To Register
The Idaho Supreme Court on Monday upheld the conviction of John Zichko - and in doing so, it also upheld the state’s sex offender registration law.
Zichko, a child-rapist and former Athol resident, is the first man in Idaho to be convicted of failing to register as a sex offender.
He took his conviction all the way to the state Supreme Court in May claiming the sex offender registration law is unconstitutionally vague, among other things.
But in a 4-1 decision released Monday, the Supreme Court justices declared Zichko would have to serve out the rest of his five-year sentence.
“I’m elated,” said Mary Zichko, John Zichko’s ex-wife. She said her former husband abused and stalked her and her children before he was sent to prison. “I was afraid of what would happen if he was released.”
In a dissenting opinion, Justice Byron Johnson agreed with Zichko’s case in part.
“I am fundamentally perplexed as to how an intelligent person can determine when and where to register,” he wrote.
In 1987, John Zichko was sentenced to 10 years in prison for raping a 15-year-old girl. He served seven.
After being released, he returned to Kootenai County on March 31, 1994. By April 7, sheriff’s deputies had arrested Zichko for failing to register as a sex offender.
According to the Idaho law that took effect in 1993, convicted sex offenders have five days to register with the sheriff’s department where they “reside or temporarily domicile.”
Kerwin Bennett, Zichko’s attorney, argued that the definition of reside or domicile is too vague. He insisted that Zichko wasn’t residing in Kootenai County, he was just visiting and therefore didn’t have to register in Kootenai County.
During the May Supreme Court appeal, the attorney for the state had a hard time telling the justices whether a convicted sex offender driving from one end of the state to the other would have to register in each county he passed through.
“If I stay the afternoon and go to the city park and eat my sandwich, had I better register?” Justice Johnson asked Lamont Anderson, deputy attorney general. “Is it your statement that the state of Idaho is prosecuting all individuals who stay one night in a county and don’t register?” In the majority opinion, written by Justice Gerald Schroeder, the Supreme Court held that the law is clear enough for an ordinary person to understand.
Besides, “In this case Zichko filled out a welfare benefits application stating that he resided in Kootenai County. This indicates a clear understanding that he was more than a visitor or tourist who was passing through.”
, DataTimes