Colorado’s second-highest court on Thursday upheld a man’s requirement to register as a sex offender for life, while acknowledging state law made no exception for his 37-year-old conviction from outside Colorado that did not even require him to register at the time.

Raymond Edward Moore has two convictions on his record for sex offenses: one from Minnesota in 1987 and one from Indiana in 1999. He moved to Colorado after his second conviction and registered as a sex offender.

Last year, Moore petitioned to discontinue his placement on the sex offender registry based on his interpretation of seemingly interlocking legal provisions. Colorado law does permit certain people to ask for discontinuation, but there are exceptions for those who have more than one adult conviction for unlawful sexual behavior. In that instance, a person is subject to sex offender registration for the rest of their life.

However, the exception for multiple convictions references a different law that applies to offenses committed after 1994 and to out-of-state offenses that require a person to register as a sex offender in that jurisdiction.

Taken together, Moore argued Colorado could account for his 1999 conviction when deciding whether to permit his de-registration. But his Minnesota conviction, which occurred before 1994 and at a time when Minnesota did not require him to register as a sex offender, fell outside the scope of Colorado law. Therefore, he did not have the necessary two convictions triggering lifetime sex offender registration.

Although an El Paso County judge believed Moore was correct about the exclusion of the pre-1994 Minnesota conviction, he nonetheless found Moore subject to lifetime registration because of the nature of the Indiana offense.

A three-judge panel for the Court of Appeals clarified, to the contrary, the 1994 dividing line did not apply to Moore’s circumstances, and it upheld his registration requirement on those grounds.

“The time limitation applies to the affirmative obligation to register, which is a different question from eligibility to petition for deregistration,” wrote Judge David H. Yun in the May 2 opinion.

At the same time, Yun conceded the decision meant Moore will remain on the sex offender registry for the rest of his life despite his last conviction for a sex offense being 25 years ago.

“We acknowledge Moore’s argument that it is unfair that a conviction so old that it did not require him to register as a sex offender in the first place should now render him ineligible to petition for deregistration,” Yun wrote. “But drawing such a distinction is a policy decision reserved for the legislature.”

Moore’s attorney, Robert P. Borquez, said the U.S. Supreme Court has rejected challenges to sex offender registration laws that encompass convictions older than the laws themselves. The court reasoned sex offender registration is “nonpunitive,” notwithstanding the social stigma and implications for employment and housing that result.

“Mr. Moore will be subject to registration for the remainder of his life for mistakes he made a quarter of a century or more ago,” Borquez ssaid. “We are still studying it before deciding whether to seek review by the Colorado Supreme Court.”

The case is Moore v. 4th Judicial District Attorney.