Court rules man convicted of Petersburg rape has to stay on sex offender list

Bill Atkinson, The Progress-Index
Updated ·2 min read
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RICHMOND – A man accused of a Petersburg rape 33 years ago will have to leave his name on the Virginia Sex Offender Registry because he could not prove that the trial court made a mistake in denying that request to be taken off.

Jacob Lampkins had maintained that a Petersburg judge did not “give a merit-based ruling” in denying his request last year to be taken off the list. However, the Virginia Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday that Lampkins never provided sufficient evidence in his appeal of the decision to show any error on the lower court’s part.

“Without a transcript or statement of facts, this court has no way of knowing what rationale, if any, the circuit court gave in denying the petition or what arguments were made at the hearing,” the appellate court’s opinion read. It called such documents “indispensable” to Lampkins’ claims.

“Consequently, we affirm the circuit court’s judgment,” the opinion read.

Lampkins, now 54, pleaded guilty rape in 1990. He is serving time in the Greensville Correctional Center in Jarratt and is eligible for release next year.

He had maintained that the offense for which he was convicted would have allowed him to petition for his name to be removed from the publicly accessible list. However, the prosecution successfully argued that the conviction was for a “Tier III” offense, which under Virginia code does not allow the defendant to ask for the purge.

According to Virginia law, a non-violent sex offender can petition to have his or her name removed from the list after 15 years. Tier III offenses require that the offender stay on the list for life.

Virginia classifies any offense at Tier III if the suspect has at leave a prior conviction for a Tier 2 crime, which the state code calls “carnal knowledge of certain minors.”

Bill Atkinson (he/him/his) is an award-winning journalist who covers breaking news, government and politics. Reach him at batkinson@progress-index.com or on Twitter at @BAtkinson_PI.

This article originally appeared on The Progress-Index: Court: Man convicted of Petersburg rape must stay on sex offender list