2013 OK 43, 305 P.3d 1004
Oklahoma’s 2004 and 2007 amendments cannot lengthen registration for people who arrived under the old rules.
Good law. Still followed. Later cases may have narrowed it — see Scope. Final word on that state’s own law and constitution — in that state only.
Starkey received a Texas deferred adjudication in 1998 and moved to Oklahoma that year, when registration there lasted ten years. A 2004 amendment started the clock only when the sentence was complete, and a 2007 amendment added offense-based levels. He was assigned level 3 — lifetime registration — without a hearing.
The court held that applying the 2004 and 2007 amendments retroactively violates the Oklahoma Constitution’s ex post facto clause (art. 2, § 15), treating the federal Constitution as a floor. The date that matters is when the person entered Oklahoma intending to stay.
Starkey protects people who moved to Oklahoma under the old rules from later increases, and it was followed months later in Burk v. State ex rel. Department of Corrections, 2013 OK 80.
The court expressly said the registration act is not facially unconstitutional. It did not decide due process or federal SORNA questions.
Last verified against the sources above on September 30, 2026.
These are plain-language summaries of court decisions, written for general education. A ruling binds only the courts beneath the court that issued it, later decisions and new laws can change what it means, and how it applies to any one person depends on facts a summary cannot capture. Read the opinion itself, and talk to a lawyer licensed in your state before relying on any case. This page is not legal advice.