William Louis Bartlett v. E.S. Alameida, Jr. W.A. Duncan, Warden

William Louis Bartlett is a state prisoner serving a 25-year-to-life sentence for failing to re-register as a sex offender pursuant to California’s sex offender registration statute, Cal. Pen.Code § 290(a)(1)(A). He contends, in his quest for a writ of habeas corpus, that his conviction violates due process because the state was not required to prove that he had knowledge of the lifelong duty to register. The district court denied Bartlett’s petition. We have jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2253 , and we reverse and remand.

I.

William Bartlett was convicted of rape in California in 1983 and incarcerated. When paroled in 1986, he signed a form acknowledging that he had a lifelong duty to register as a sex offender in California. In the next four years, Bartlett repeatedly violated his parole and was returned to prison five times. Bartlett registered as a sex offender when he was released from prison in 1987 and again in 1990 when he was released. By 1990, Bartlett had signed three forms, each indicating that his duty to register as a sexual offender was a lifelong requirement, and he had duly registered twice as a sex offender. After 1990, however, he never again registered…