Families of SOs Community Group
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I was talking to my friend who is a lawyer about this "frightening and high" issue and how the court got it so wrong. He understood my frustration with it but he thought it wouldn't have mattered much in the long run. He was saying he thought it would come down to does the state have a compelling state interest in protecting people from sex offenders. He said even if the threat was not frightening or high that there was at least some level of threat and that would most likely pass for a compelling state interest.
So I said but what about the studies that show notification laws actually increase net sex crimes? Even if you consider the deterrence effects the laws show a net gain in sex crimes because they fail to allow offenders to reintegrate back into society making them more not less likely to repeat their crimes. He said SCOTUS is rarely looking to judge policy on its merits but just whether it is legal and within the bounds of the constitution. That saddened me a little bit.
One of the reasons we have had success at the state level is that the State Supreme Courts are ruling that portions of the registry cannot be applied retroactively as any retroactive application would be a violation of the STATE constitution, not the federal constitution. Since the United States Supreme Court decision in 2003, there is no real manner in which the registry can be attacked on a federal level.
Most states have a constitution that prevents ex post facto laws, which bars any law from being applied retroactively. Please note that civil laws can always be applied retroactively, which is how the legislators have been able to enact so much legislation against registrants.
The Starkey case in Oklahoma was won because Mr.Starkey convinced the Oklahoma State Supreme Court that many parts of the registry had become punitive and thus they could not be applied retroactively to any registrant whose crime occurred before 2007, when the tier levels in Oklahoma were introduced. The Starkey decision is how I got off the registry.
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Many of the states are attacking the SORNA requirements, saying the enhanced reporting requirements set forth by SORNA should not apply to those convicted before the enactment of SORNA. Oklahoma was successful with this method in the Starkey case and I think the Williams case in Ohio was decided in much the same manner. I think Maryland did much of the same thing with Nancy Forster as the attorney for the sex offenders. Pennsylvania, I think, also has such a law suit in progress at this time.
If we cannot expect many victories at the federal level, we need to concentrate on the state level.
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But victories at the state level are nothing to sneeze at. I'll settle for any kind of progress.