PA: 5 years for missed re-registration date goes back for resentencing
A Pennsylvania man who received a five to 10 year prison sentence for being three weeks late for a registration, will get a re sentencing.
The 45 year old man was required to register because of a 2004 conviction in Maryland. He registered in Maryland for years and then continued to register in Pennsylvania for a number of years, before simply forgetting – yet registering 24 days late.
The oversight got him a substantial prison sentence, because in Pennsylvania, the mandatory minimum sentence for a failure to register is five years! That is until now…
The man appealed his sentence, arguing that the mandatory sentence was illegal. A jury, not a judge, must determine if facts justified a mandatory sentence. Here, a judge made the determination.
The court vacated his sentence but not his conviction. He’s still going to be charged for missing his registration date, but hopefully will get a more reasonable sentence.
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I still don’t understand how ANYONE can be PUT IN JAIL/PRISON for failing to “Register” !!????? It’s NOT considered PUNISHMENT to have to “,Register”, So how can “The Law” put someone in jail for failing to do something that’s NOT CONSIDERED PUNISHMENT !!!???????. Sam’s Club doesn’t put people in jail for not renewing their membership !!!!!!. Planet Fitness doesn’t put people in jail for not renewing their membership, I can’t name ANY business that puts people in Jail for Not renewing their membership !!¡!!!!. It’s time we did something !!!!! This has gotten Completely OUT OF CONTROL !!!. People’s lives are being RUINED over and over again all because of something that is ILLEGAL to begin with !!!!!.
It is so enormously mind-boggling that so much ignorance is happening in the hands of supposedly intelligent people responsible for making laws, more and more laws in which to ensnare more and more of their fellow humans.
But then I am reminded that intelligence and wisdom are two very different things. Wisdom operates from the heart whereas intelligence function is in the brain, specifically the left brain. Greed happens in the brain/mind. Greed cannot exist in the heart.
All my life I have never been one to wish bad things on my fellow humans because it’s basically wishing it on my self. However, this hasn’t helped in changing the world for the better so now I find myself wishing for every single lawmaker in this country to experience being trapped in this situation directly, or one of their kids, and they are not able to get them out of it.
Even then, though, their strings are still pulled by the evil Vatican. I’ve heard stories about how they trap reps into blackmailable situations in order to control them. They also want them to be married and have kids to use as leverage.
I wish all self-proclaimed “christians“ would wake up and see the light which would reveal the darkness of their beliefs. They are the biggest group holding us back and they do not realize how their beliefs were designed by the Vatican. The Vatican created an enormous horde of judgmental hypocrites who are without mercy and forgiveness. And a hypocrite is the worst possible thing you can be on this planet.
Didn’t PA just change thier law that anyone convicted prior to Dec 20, 2008 know longer is required to register? Lea Bickerton a lawyer in PA shared that at the NARSOL conference.
You misunderstood somewhat. You are thinking of the Muniz case, which I will try to clarify below.
In PA they have three tiers of registration; I, II and III. as of December 20, 2012, Tier I offenders register for 15 years, Tier II for 25 and Tier III for life. Prior, the lowest tier only had to register for 10 years.
Muniz held that someone who was supposed to register for 10 years, cannot retroactively be forced to register for 15, 25 or life when the law changed. It was a PA Supreme Court case that found SORNA was punitive and cannot be applied retroactively.
Muniz, was convicted in 2007 and required to register for 10 years. He should have been off in 2017, but because the state changed the law they tried to force him to continue to register (by charging him with a crime for failing to do so). He won in court!
The decision gave relief to approximately 17K people who were in the same boat as Muniz. Some hit the 10 year mark years ago and are removed (which is why you’re thinking 2008), some have not hit it yet, but will be off on that anniversary.
There are others who are pre 2008 but in higher tiers and will have to register for life.