TOPEKA —The Kansas Supreme Court Friday affirmed a Saline County District Court judge’s order that Rayburn Tappendick Jr. be required to register as a sex offender under the Kansas Offender Registration Act, according to a media release from the court.

Tappendick pleaded no contest in 2011 to two counts of aggravated indecent liberties with a child for offenses committed in 2008. At the time of his plea, the Kansas Offender Registration Act required lifetime registration.

On appeal, Tappendick claimed the lifetime registration requirement violated the ex post facto clause of the U.S. Constitution, which prohibits legislatures from retroactively punishing previously committed crimes, because at the time he committed the crimes, the Kansas Offender Registration Act required only a 10-year registration period. A Court of Appeals panel declined to consider Tappendick’s claim based on the general rule that a new legal theory may not be asserted for the first time on appeal. The panel noted Tappendick failed to show his claim invoked any of the exceptions to the general rule.

In his petition for review, Tappendick asked the Supreme Court to review the Court of Appeals decision, asserting that the panel incorrectly ruled that he could not raise the ex post facto claim for the first time on appeal.

The Supreme Court opinion, written by Justice Dan Biles, noted Tappendick merely mentioned the exceptions to the general rule and argued without any explanation or authority that the new issue invoked the exceptions but made no effort to challenge the panel’s rationale for declining to address his claim. The court held Tappendick’s petition for review failed to challenge the panel’s decision not to consider his claim raised for the first time on appeal.