Follow the link:

http://tinyurl.com/kqb5pa7

I knew this movement was in the works in Maryland, as I had previously talked via email to Nancy Forster, an attorney working for some of the registrants who were plaintiffs in the case. She is just a cool lady, BTW. In fact, she is one of my heroes.

The plaintiffs, the registrants, in Maryland are using the fact that their crimes were committed---and they were convicted--- before the establishment of the registry; therefore, the registry in Maryland is a form of retroactive punishment and illegal. Ex Post Facto laws are illegal.

A lower court has agreed with the sex offenders.

According to the court, it was a form of retroactive punishment, which is against Maryland law

Yes, the AG in Maryland will appeal, but this is a start.

They did the same thing in Oklahoma. The Oklahoma DOC lost in the lower courts, and thinking that surely somewhere a judge would agree with their position, they kept appealing to a higher court. They kept losing. So they rolled the dice one last time, went for all the marbles and appealed it to the Oklahoma State Supreme Court. Well, they lost there in a landmark decision that was highly critical of how the DOC had handled the SORNA portion of the sex offender registry. Now guess what? Instead of a minimal amount of damage if they had cut their losses and left it at a lower court level, they will have to move thousands from the registry.

Sometimes these legislators get too feisty and “too big for their britches” and continue to pile on so many regulations that the registry becomes punitive. They get cocky and overplay their hand.

So let the state of Maryland appeal. If it gets to the Maryland Supreme Court, and the registrants win there, then the decision will affect more than just a handful of registrants.

In this case, the registrants of Maryland are saying that the registry itself cannot be applied retroactively to those that were convicted before the registry existed.

In my state, Oklahoma, the Oklahoma Supreme Court did not rule exactly like this. They did not rule on the registry per se. They ruled that the application of the SORNA regulations to anyone convicted before 2007, the date the SORNA regulations were enacted in this state, was unconstitutional and illegal. Here they used the state constitution, not the federal constitution as a basis for the filing of the lawsuit.

In both cases the problem was the retroactivity of the law.

Something similar also happened in Ohio about a year ago.

My point is that registrants are beginning to win some major victories at the state level. These victories should give us something that we all desperately need---HOPE. Folks, I have been at this for many, many years, and the tide is slowly turning.

Things are slowly changing---IN OUR FAVOR.

Many registrants will look at the decisions in Ohio, Oklahoma, and the pending outcome of the one in Maryland and think, “But my situation is different. My guy was not convicted before the inception of either SORNA or the introduction of the sex offender registry. How can this help me?”

Well, it won’t affect anyone in those situations at the present time. But here is the bigger picture: The public and many of the courts are now seeing the registry for just what it is---punishment. And therefore, these laws cannot be applied retroactively. Courts are now willing to listen to any attorney that argues that the sex offender registry and all its ramifications have gone too far and have now become punitive in nature.

This change in ATTITUDE, even though it is just a start, can only be a good thing for all of us who post on this board.

No matter what state you live in, whether it is a state with Draconian attitudes toward sex offenders such as Florida, Texas, Louisiana or wherever, you have to be encouraged by this. It shows that reforms can be made through the court system OUT OF THE REACH OF LAWMAKERS which will benefit folks like us. In most of these decisions the legislators cannot go back and wordsmith or change the language in the bill to make it constitutional and override the court decision..The courts have spoken.

We need to keep the pressure on. I write and write and call people every day that I think will help our cause. We should now become like the proverbial shark in the water when he smells blood. Things are definitely looking up.

I have often said that reform will begin at the state level, which it has. This can only build and snowball into something better for all of us.

We can use these court decisions as stepping stones to more decisions in our favor. The sex offender registry or any portion of Megan's Law will never be abolished in one great swoop at the federal level, but we can work on this on the state level---AND BUILD FROM THERE. When I was teaching reading to inmates in prison, there was and old saying “Success begets success.” That is true here.

I am typing very fast this morning, so if there are any grammatical errors, please excuse me.

rewdaizepam