MI: Michigan Supreme Court limits sex offender registry law to post-2011 cases
The Michigan Supreme Court has ruled that people who committed sex offenses before July 2011 cannot be required to follow the state’s current sex offender registry law.
The unanimous decision says applying the 2021 law to older cases would add punishment after the fact.
The ruling does not affect people whose offenses happened on or after July 1, 2011. They remain subject to the current registration requirements.
https://mirs-uploads.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/3670-eddie%20lee%20smith%20order.pdf
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Who was the person or organization that filed this case that got it to the Michigan Supreme court??
Hopefully the Michigan State Legislature will not try to pull any more dirty tricks by simply changing a word or two and repassing a “new” law.
Any day now, this will make national headlines and hopefully have comment sections. “Idiot Michigan Supreme Court deletes half of the sex offender registry! All sex offenders are going to flood into Michigan! All Michigan women and precious children are going to be raped on every corner any day now! Oh, the horror!”
Of course, that will never happen. Statistically speaking, a handful of those de-registered might end up committing another sex crime, and the implication will be that if he were registered, the new sex crime would never have happened. Rather than bemoan the defendant, it would be better to show that it follow the obvious trend of sexual recidivism – that they’re always perfectly registry compliant. And even if not, the violation had nothing to do with the new crime.
Bottom line – flood comment sections with sanity when this story goes viral.
This one-page order makes it clear that the Michigan Supreme Court is tired of that state legislature’s antics on this issue. The Michigan legislature has had many opportunities to address the constitutional deficiencies of Michigan SORA but have refused to do so. As a result, instead of getting some version of registration for those with pre-2011 offenses, they will now get nothing at all.
The next question is what cause of action those who have been unconstitutionally forced to register, in some cases for decades, have against the state of Michigan for its intentional deprivation of their rights under the United States and Michigan Constitutions? The Michigan Supreme Court (along with the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals) has been telling the Michigan legislature that the law is unconstitutional for many years now. These civil rights violations can therefore be described as nothing other than the intentional deprivation of liberty.