Anyone have any thoughts on whether the Lawrence v. Texas decision striking down the sodomy law is retroactive? Seems like it might be under United States v. Johnson, 457 U.S. 537, 550-51.

[This message was edited by John Rolater on 07-15-03 at .]

I know the Court sent back a Kansas case for review in light of the decision in Lawrence. That case dealt with sexual offense. I believe it was young child (underage) and older person.

Are you trying to figure out whether every conviction the State has obtained under Sec. 21.06 since 1973 is subject to collateral attack? Or do you guys have a bunch of 21.06 cases pending there in Dallas?

We were wondering about old convictions. As far as I know, we did not have alot of pending 21.06 cases.

Are you serious?

I guess I'm as serious as I can be about the subject.

One of our trial prosecutors was planning on using it as punishment evidence and thought it required registration. Then Lawrence happened. He asked the question--we offered the opinion that it was not regissterable in any event and that Lawrence appears to be retroactive, so he should leave off.

I thought I was doing good to crack only one joke during the exchange, so I guess it's pretty serious. I don't think our writ lawyers are expecting a flood of petitions to set aside these things, though.

[This message was edited by John Rolater on 07-16-03 at .]