They went to the jail to register hin? Wow.. thats crazy

Yep, I was shocked when I saw him on there just a couple of weeks after he was locked up. It also said distributing and producing. He was never charged with producing. I found out that the registry would automatically have on there distributing and producing for anyone convicted of distributing. To me, that's like deceiving the public.

They wanted to charge my son with distribution. He had 2cp that he downloaded thru limewire. Ghey tried to make the case that , because it was on a P2P that it wad automatically available for others to share and that would make it distribution..
so now they go inside the prisons and register..that's scary.

My husband was sentenced on November 20th, 2012. Before they even transported him from county jail, he was on the Florida registry and the National registry. No one went to the jail to register him, as he still doesn't know he is registered as an SO. But, then again, I am talking about the great state of Florida! Can you hear the sarcasm?

If he would have been convicted of distributing he would have been a tier 2. My son also got his cp through limewire. He had a new computer and couldn't figure out how to disable the file share. Because of that, one video ended up getting shared. I know, he shouldn't have been looking at that stuff anyway. Obviously, he wasn't thinking.

Faery,
If I remember right, a Tier 3 can appeal for removal after 25 years. Tier 2s are screwed. There is no early process.

We live in PA now and have been thinking of moving to Florida. I didn't realize that in FL you have to register for life. Ugh. My BF has to register as a SO because he was convicted of Surreptitious Intrusion (voyeurism) in North Dakota, which is considered a sex offense there. He was blackout drunk at the time and looking in an 80-year-old couple's window. I am not saying that he shouldn't take responsibility for what he did but it was in 2005 and I don't believe he should be punished for the rest of his life.

He is not violent in any way shape or form. He's in recovery and doesn't drink or do drugs. He can't find a job and has deep-rooted psychological issues from having to live this way. I can't believe that regardless of the offense, he'd have to register for LIFE in Florida. How are these things constitutional? How are people supposed to recover and build lives as responsible citizens if they are marked as sex offenders for life? There's no hope of expungment, as they do not do it at all in North Dakota.

We currently live in PA and want to move to Florida, but now may wait until his 15 year registration requirement is over. It's not worth having to register for life.

It's all so disheartening. I'm tempted to tell him to apply for SSI and give up looking for a job. Being punished for life is just wrong for this sort of offense, that wouldn't even be considered a sex offense in many states.

DO NOT move to Florida. He will have to register even after his registration is over in PA. Their law say if you were EVER registered.
I am not on the PA registry anymore. Haven't been for 2 years. I got off before the AWA took effect after 10 years. If I moved to Florida, I would have to register.

Avidreader,

You asked "How are these things constitutional," when referring to a life time registration in Florida for all sex crimes regardless of their severity.

They are able to do this because the registry is not considered by most courts as punishment or punitive; it has been considered only a regulatory civil scheme to protect the public. You and I and everyone else on this boards knows that the registry is another form of punishment, but most of the higher courts, including the United States Supreme Court, does not agree with us.

As long as the registry is considered a civil procedure, the government can mandate anyone convicted of a sex crime to be on the registry with very few exceptions. If it was considered punitive, they could not do that as that would make it additional punishment added after the original sentencing, which would be illegal.

Another advantage for the government when the courts rule that the registry is only civil in nature and not punitive is that these civil schemes can be applied retroactively. If the registry was ruled punitive by the courts, there could be not retroactivity applied because any retroactive application of a criminal law would be a violation of the ex post facto clause of the United States Constitution.

rewdiazepam

Thank you, rewdiazepam. It just blows my mind. I'm all for protecting victims of sexual abuse and assault, but the registry has gotten way out of hand.

What I don't agree with is how a civil registry period determined in one state is not transferable to another. If a PA conviction carries 15 years on the registry how can Florida say it is lifetime? Isn't this a violation of civil contract law?

Something even more troublesome is that, even though the registry is supposedly a civil regulatory entity, a conviction of failure to register brings a criminal prosecution and conviction. I know of people who received a harsher sentence on a failure to register--FTR---than they did for the crime that placed them on the registry in the first place.

This just seems contradictory to common sense.

rewdiazepam

In 2012 my boyfriend was convicted of FTR because they came to his house several times and he was not home. He had been spending a lot of time at a friend's house and should have listed it as a secondary address. He plead guilty. It's a felony, while his original charge in 2005 was a misdemeanor. The judge in the FTR case suggested he try to get the felony expunged after fulfilling his probation, which he did. He's going to start working on the expungment now so at least he won't have a felony on his record.

It makes no logical sense at all.