I have not yet had time to wade through HB 867. And I admit that the sex offender admonishment form which we use was plagiarized from Williamson County's. Does it need to be altered in any way? If anyone has a revised version, please fax me a copy at 254-435-2952.

The rewrite of the sex offender registration laws this last regular session makes it a lot easier to deal with the admonition given to a defendant before a guilty plea.

First, the law has been amended to take out the silly requirement that the judge inquire as to whether the defense lawyer has advised the defendant of all the laws related to sex offender registration. It was insulting to defense lawyers and no one in the history of that law has ever advised their client of all the consequences.

Second, the law has been amended to make it clear that a judge need only "substantially" comply with the admonition requirement. That gives us flexibility in designing a written admonition.

Third, the law has been amended to make it clear that a defendant can't use the failure to admonish as a basis for setting aside the guilty plea. As courts have repeatedly said, the sex offender registration requirements are collateral consequences of a guilty plea and are not part of the constitutionally required warnings that must be given before a plea can be voluntary.

Given these changes, we have reduced the warnings to a single paragraph:

If the Defendant is convicted of or placed on deferred adjudication for an offense for which the person is subject to sex offender registration under Chapter 62, CCP, the Defendant will be required to meet the registration requirements of that law. For a list of offenses triggering sex offender registration, see Article 62.001, CCP. The Defendant understands that the sex offender registration laws include many details other than those listed in these admonitions, are subject to change, and may be applied retroactively. The failure to comply with the current or future laws is a criminal offense.