Nevada Sex Offender Registration Termination – How to Do It

To be removed from the Nevada Sex Offender Registry, even if eligible for early termination, you must:

1. Petition your local district court,
2. Attend a hearing, and
3. Receive approval from a judge

Early termination is generally granted if you meet all requirements. Your name is not automatically removed without completing this process.

Getting Off the Registry

There are two circumstances where you may be entitled to early termination of your duty to register with the Nevada Sex Offender Registry:

1. You are a Tier I offender who has registered for 10 consecutive years or more. Usually, Tier I offenders must register for 15 years.¹
2. You are a Tier III offender for an offense for which you were adjudicated delinquent as a juvenile and you have registered for 25 consecutive years or more. Normally, Tier III offenders must register for life.²

Tier II offenders are never eligible for early termination. You must remain on Nevada’s sex offender registry for at least 25 years.

Tier II sex offenders may not get off of the registry early in Nevada.

Eligibility

To receive early termination of your sex offender registration requirements in Nevada, you must have:

1. Not been convicted of another criminal offense for which imprisonment of more than 1 year may be imposed;
2. Not been convicted of any other sex crime;
3. Successfully completed any periods of supervised release, probation or parole; and
4. Successfully completed a sex offender treatment program certified by the state of Nevada or by the Attorney General of the United States.³

This is in addition to the time requirements discussed above.

Being on the sex offender registry is an enormous social stigma.

Process

Once you are eligible to get off the Nevada Sex Offender registry, you must file a petition for early termination with the district court in the jurisdiction in which you reside. If you are not a permanent resident of Nevada, you file in the jurisdiction in which you work or go to school.

The court will then hold a hearing on your petition, where you may present witnesses and other evidence. If the court determines from the evidence presented that you meet the requirements for early termination, it will issue an order stating that you no longer have a duty to register as a Nevada sex offender.⁴

It usually takes about six to eight months from the filing of a petition to get your duty to register terminated. Until your petition has been approved and the order has been entered, you must continue to comply with all sex offender registration requirements.

Forgetting to register as a sex offender is a felony in Nevada.

Pros

An early termination under NRS 179D.490 removes your obligation to:

• register as a sex offender,
• notify the state of Nevada when you move, and
• provide an annual verification form to the Criminal History Repository.

Once you no longer have to register, you do not have to worry about forgetting to register. Failure to register as a sex offender is a category D felony carrying one to four years in state prison and up to $5,000.

Termination of the duty to register will also remove your name from the portion of the registry searchable by the public.

Cons

Early termination from Nevada’s sex offense registry will not:

• seal your record,
• restore your gun rights, or
• remove the duty to disclose the conviction on job and housing applications.

The only way to fully restore your civil rights is to receive an unconditional pardon from the Nevada Board of Pardons.⁵ However, even a pardon may be conditional: It may or may not relieve you of all disabilities incurred upon conviction.

Also see our article on pardons and restoring your gun rights.

Lowering Tiers

There is no legal mechanism in Nevada for Tier III sex offenders to be re-categorized as a Tier II or Tier I. Similarly, there is no way for Tier II sex offenders to be recategorized as Tier I.

You remain in your Tier until your prescribed registration period lapses or until you are granted early termination.

Early termination of the duty to register helps people get on with their life sooner.

Additional Reading

For more in-depth information, refer to the following:

• The Evolution of Unconstitutionality in Sex Offender Registration Laws – Hastings Law Journal.
• The Influence of Sex Offender Registration and Notification Laws in the United States: A Time-Series Analysis – Crime & Delinquency.
• Collateral Consequences of Sex Offender Registration – Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice.
• Do Sex Offender Registration and Notification Laws Affect Criminal Behavior? – Journal of Law and Economics.
• Public and Professional Views of Sex Offender Registration and Notification – Criminology, Criminal Justice Law & Society.

Legal references: