Application for Executive Clemency

To the Governor of Ohio:

My Montgomery Co. Ohio case 2002-CR-04586 has been closed for some time, but in North Carolina it has taken on a life of its own. I need administrative assistance to bring NC into compliance with Ohio rulings and directives. Their inappropriate actions have created an emergency situation which must be addressed before the New Year.

This link provides a comprehensive timeline for my case:
http://gregkendall.com/docs/e_summary_timeline.php
Each timeline entry is fully documented with references to primary sources.

Here are the facts, briefly:

A Pender County, North Carolina warrant for Failure to Register as a sex offender has been issued, while I am in China making arrangements to be married. Actually NC laws do not state any specific requirement for an offender traveling overseas. Further, the U.S. State Department has no mechanism to assist with S.O. registrations abroad. I've made wholehearted efforts to comply.

The Sheriff's office has only tried to compound my troubles: Upon my request for help, they promptly sent a "NOTICE TO APPEAR" for address verification. My inability to appear in Pender County within 3 days of that notice, may bring yet another "Failure to Register" felony charge.

I've sought relief from the District Attorney in Pender Co. He seems to think that no harm will be done if he simply allows me to return home on my own schedule, at which time we can take a look at my case. That sounds rather friendly, except that the outstanding warrant has already caused my passport to be seized, making it impossible for me to renew my visa or to get married with my fiancée here in China.

The inability to renew my visa creates a severe crisis. If I overstay the time limit of my current visa the authorities here may fine me, imprison me, and/or deport me. China is strict about these matters. My last valid day to remain in China is 06-Jan-2010.

Assuming that I could borrow emergency funds and travel around the world to America, authorities might serve the warrant as soon as I present myself at a point of entry to the United States. They may extradite me to North Carolina. They would certainly lock me away until the date of a hearing. Massive time and money, pain and effort would be wasted before the presiding judge finally learns:

(a.) that no "Failure to Register" has actually occurred because...
      (a1.) I have submitted my temporary Chinese address to the Pender County Sheriffs on a timely basis.
      (a2.) I also attempted to register with U.S. authorities in China, by submitting a "Travel Registration" with the US Consulate in Shanghai. This was their closest approximation of the sex offender registration process.
      (a3.) Upon receiving the NOTICE TO APPEAR, I immediately returned to the US Consulate in Shanghai, where they authenticated my identity and verified my appearance IN-PERSON. This is the best form of compliance that was humanly possible under the circumstances.
      (a4.) My permanent home address has never shifted from the Surf City location as listed on the NC registry.

Separately, I contend that my obligation to register should be voided on the following basis:
(b.) that my NC registration is derived solely from an Ohio case;
*(c.) that Ohio has instructed NC to cease all activities related to my Ohio case;
(d.) that I was never registered previously in the State of Ohio; and
*(e.) that O.R.C. 2907.323(A)(3) WAS NOT A REGISTERABLE OFFENSE at the time of my sentencing. Subsections (1) and (2) of that law are registerable, whereas (3) is not.  My registration requirement was assigned in error by Ohio prison officials upon my release to North Carolina.

____Citations____
*(c.) follows from Ohio Supreme Court's "Hernandez v. Kelly, 2006-Ohio-126" decided 12-Jan-2006, and from explicit instructions sent between Ohio Interstate Compact office and the Adult Parole Authority in North Carolina.
*(e.) follows from Ohio Supreme Court's "State v. Jessee, 2007-Ohio-670" decided 16-Feb-2007.

To avoid a substantial miscarriage of justice in this case, someone with sufficient authority must:
1. Cancel any outstanding warrant(s) related to this Ohio case
2. Order that my requirement to register as a sex offender be terminated
3. Remove me from public sex offender registries in both NC and California

Further, NC officials must immediately notify the US Consulate in Shanghai that my NC warrant(s) and the State's corresponding "hold" of my passport have been cancelled. Vice-consul Paul Guertin is the person to contact at the US Consulate in Shanghai http://shanghai.usembassy-china.org.cn/contact.html using his direct email address, <GuertinPM@state.gov>. He is aware of my situation and has been very kind, even apologetic that he did not have personal authority to make an exception on my behalf.

No change of my status within Ohio is really necessary. Perhaps the relief I need can be accomplished with a phone call, to get communications sorted out between the State of Ohio and the local officials in North Carolina, who insist upon prosecuting me against all logic. But in the extreme case that they won't heed your advice, there is the option to pardon my offense, nullifying any future debate about my restrictions, registration compliance, or new felony charges related to this case.

Toward that purpose, this link will download my completed application for Executive Clemency:
http://gregkendall.com/docs/ohio_gov/DRC3068_Greg_Kendall.pdf [attached below]

Getting the document notarized here in China without any passport for identification, has cost me two days' time. For reasons of immense distance and urgent timing, I am unable to provide official certified copies of Ohio court documents or parole documents. Montgomery County Ohio's Public Records Online [PRO] system http://www.clerk.co.montgomery.oh.us/pro/ offers the court files. My website http://gregkendall.com/ also provides accurate copies of all relevant files, linked in context. Original hardcopy documents have been sent to the Ohio Parole Board per the DRC3068 instructions. Paper copies have also been mailed to your office at 77 S. High Street. I have transmitted them to your fax number, and provided them online via the Contact form on your website.

I am quite grateful for any relief that you can offer. My Chinese fiancée also will appreciate this; her crash introduction to the American system of government! We are poised to enter the New Year 2010, and our new life together. You can really make an impact on the color of her perceptions.

Thanks in advance for your consideration and assistance.

Warmly,

MY SIGNATURE

Greg Kendall

MY PHONE [via Skype, in Shanghai China]
greg@synapticdata.com

MY ADDRESS

Supplemental notes based on further research and discovery:

There was no official (written) requirement for post-release control until my Termination Entry was Amended ONE YEAR AFTER my release from prison. Note the Amended date and the Filed date on the AMENDED TERMINATION ENTRY enclosed.

My erroneous "sexually-oriented offender" designation was first applied by Judge G. Jack Davis, now deceased. It was not mis-assigned by the prison officials as I had believed and stated in my Application for Clemency. The Chillicothe prison officials had followed the judge's sentencing entry. This designation did not become a REGISTRATION requirement until my release from prison, as Megan's Law requires sex offenders to be registered upon release from incarceration regardless of the category of offense. I was never registered in Ohio. I was first registered in North Carolina, and subsequently in California too, then back to my current jurisdiction in NC.

The offense for which I was convicted is not merely unregisterable, it was totally NOT a sexually-oriented offense at all.

See: http://www.supremecourt.ohio.gov/rod/docs/pdf/2/2007/2007-Ohio-670.pdf

4th page, {¶9} states that "R.C. 2907.322(A)(5) and 2907.323(A)(3) are not sexually oriented offenses per R.C. 2950.01(D)(1)(b)(iii) and (iv). With respect to violations of R.C. 2907.322 and 2907.323, only violations of subsections (A)(1) or (3) of R.C. 2907.322 and subsections (A)(1)or (2) of R.C. 2907.323 are defined as sexually oriented offenses, pursuant to R.C. 2950.01(D)(1)(b)(iii) and (iv). Violations of R.C. 2907.322(A)(5) and 2907.323(A)(3) are not likewise classified."

Appellate cases subsequent to the enactment of Adam Walsh laws in Ohio, have not overturned this position but have upheld the Supreme Court's finding with regard to these laws which remained in effect from 1997 through 2008, encompassing all dates of my investigation and trial and sentencing and probation and revocation and imprisonment and release and community control. http://www.sconet.state.oh.us/rod/docs/pdf/2/2008/2008-ohio-422.pdf

I therefore should never have been categorized a sexually-oriented offender, should not have been subject to Community Control sanctions and special supervision conditions specific to sex offenders, should not have had a technical violation of my probation based upon Possession of Children's Paraphernalia, and should never have been sent to Ohio Prison.

North Carolina officials (Pender County Sheriffs and District Attorney) have stubbornly continued prosecuting me. Since my initial application to you, they have jailed me TWICE and have added brand-new charges of "Failure to Register" and for having a profile on a social network (Facebook) while registered as a sex offender. These cases are currently pending. I had fully complied with registration laws while visiting China, to the best of human ability. I was unaware that the Facebook page had become illegal. Notice of this new law's enactment was given, while I was away from home on a work assignment in California, and was properly registered in that jurisdiction as required. I missed that memo. But at all times I was operating in good faith, not trying to resist authority. Full details and documentation of my case are still publicly available at http://gregkendall.com/docs/e_summary_timeline.php.

I desperately need for Ohio to instruct NC that my sex offender registration requirement is void and dead, retroactively to the point of origin. Whatever steps are necessary to attain this result, including a Pardon and/or Expungement (sealing), should be done in the interest of justice.

CONTACT in NC - Supervisor at the State Bureau of Investigation [SBI], Criminal Information and Identification Section, Sex Offender Coordination Unit - Mike East <meast@ncdoj.gov> - 919.662.4500, x6350.

Thank you,

-Greg-