dailybreeze.com(California) :Sex offender sentenced to life for failing to register loses appeal.
A man sentenced by a Torrance judge to life in prison for failing to register as a sex offender lost an appeal of his sentence Friday.
Wynford Eugene Murray sexually abused two young girls in New York more than a decade ago and failed to register as a sex offender when he moved to California.
Last April, Torrance Superior Court Judge Mark Arnold sentenced Murray to the "third strike" term of 25 years to life in prison after a nonjury trial in which he was convicted of failing to register as a sex offender.
Murray claimed Arnold abused his discretion in denying his request to vacate at least one of his prior "strikes" from the New York case, but a three-justice panel from the 2nd District Court of Appeal turned down his appeal.
Murray, a transient who had lived first in Canoga Park and then Redondo Beach, contended that he did not know until after his arrest that California law required him to register as a sex offender, the justices noted in their eight-page ruling.
Make no mistake: This man was sentenced to life in prison NOT because of any sex crime , but because he failed to register his address with authorities when he moved to California. Does that punishment fit that crime? Of course not. It is insanity.
