OLR Bill Analysis
AN ACT CONCERNING SEXUAL OFFENDER NAME CHANGES.
This bill prohibits superior or probate courts from issuing orders or otherwise allowing people required to register as sex offenders to change their names unless the offenders they:
1. notify the public safety commissioner of their intent to seek a name change before filing an application with the court;
2. include in the notice the new name being sought; and
3. include in the application a sworn statement that the change is not being sought to avoid the legal consequences of a criminal conviction, including registration as a sex offender.
The bill gives the commissioner standing, through the attorney general, to challenge the application in the court where the name change is being sought. The court may deny the application if it finds, by a preponderance of the evidence, that the applicant is seeking the name change to avoid the legal consequences of a criminal conviction.
The law, unchanged by the bill, requires people required to register as sex offenders to notify the commissioner of any name change in writing and without undue delay. It also requires the clerk of any court to notify the commissioner whenever the court orders a name change for a person required to register. By law, anyone convicted or found not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect of a criminal offense against a minor, nonviolent sexual offense, sexually violent offense, or felony committed for a sexual purpose must register as a sex offender with the Department of Public Safety.
EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage
COMMITTEE ACTION
Judiciary Committee
Joint Favorable Substitute
Yea |
40 |
Nay |
0 |
(03/24/2008) |