Addition of sex offender conditions to probation
In State v. Hicks, decided May 3, the S.C. Supreme Court denied Hicks' appeal from the addition of sex offender conditions to his probation on grounds that there were two additional grounds for HIcks' revocation that his attorney did not appeal.
Hicks pled guilty to ABHAN (assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature) and was sentenced to ten years suspended to time served, five years probation, and registration as a sex offender. His probation was later revoked 90 days and the court ordered that Probation, Pardon, and Parole's sex offender conditions would be added as conditions of his probation.
The sex offender conditions of probation are burdensome and extreme, and I don't see where a court can or should add such terms at a later term of court, essentially modifying the defendant's sentence after the fact. The defendant here was sentenced in 2005, the probation department added the sex offender conditions in January 2006, and the Circuit Court added them to the defendant's sentence in May 2006.
The Court of Appeals did not answer the question, holding that the issue of the addition of the sex offender conditions at the revocation hearing was not preserved because it was not ruled upon by the Circuit Court; and here the Supreme Court has also dodged the question by holding that they cannot hear the appeal because defendant did not raise all grounds for revocation.
I believe, because of the extreme requirements in the sex offender conditions of probation, that this is not different than the case of State v. Davis, where the Court of Appeals reversed the Circuit Court's addition of the sex offender registry to the defendant's sentence during a probation revocation hearing - although the sentencing judge can order order placement on the sex offender registry for good cause following a conviction of ABHAN, a probation revocation judge at a later time does not have the authority to modify the sentence and add sex offender registry as a condition.
