Judge rejects ACLU challenge to sex offender GPS monitoring

A Chancery court judge has rejected the American Civil Liberties Union’s challenge to a state law requiring GPS monitoring of certain convicted sex offenders who have been released from custody and are on probation.

The judge on Friday granted summary judgment to the state corrections commissioner.

The lawsuit was brought on behalf of three high-risk sex offenders, including a rapist and a female accomplice to rape and sodomy.

They complained that wearing GPS monitors was embarrassing, sometimes painful and an invasion of privacy. Two of the three offenders said they incurred more than $11,000 in debt as a result of the as a result of paying $4.65 a day for GPS monitoring, according to court documents obtained by The News Journal.

The ACLU argued that if monitoring is not punitive, it must be applied only on a case-by-case basis, and that if it is, it could not be applied retroactively.

The Delaware Supreme Court previously ruled that such GPS monitoring was not punitive and could therefore be applied retroactively.

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