MI: News from Michigan – New SORA NOT Retroactive.
Hot off the press is the following Order from the US District Court from the Eastern District of Michigan.
Michigan – Final Order 06212021
While it’ll take a few readings to understand and be able to explain the full impact of the order, we didn’t want to delay distribution of this information.
At first blush it seems to be good news, as the court concluded that the new version of Michigan’s SORA cannot apply retroactively to people whose offenses predated March 24, 2021.
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MI Supreme Ct.: registry laws are punitive
https://all4consolaws.org/2021/07/michigan-supreme-court-declares-sex-offender-laws-are-punitive/
Jacob, it is certainly good news that it looks like the Michigan Supreme Court is finally falling in line with what has already been found by the federal court in regard to Michigan’s law. But looks like they are leaving it up to Judge Cleland’s final judgment to outline the specifics. Let’s hope it comes soon.
Here is the part I like
The Court based its decision upon the ex post facto clauses of both the Michigan and the U.S. Constitutions.
That last line “AND the U.S Constitutions.”
That is what matters. Yes we can use example from other states but this court stated the truth, that even the U.S Constitution says you cannot retro actively apply punishment of a new law for something you did in the past.
People like myself and others. My incident was from 1991. They did not apply registries here until late 1997. But I am on it for life with no chance for removal. And no, not listed as a predator.
I think the critical part was finding much of the Registry to be punishment. Without that funding, the ex post facto clauses would not have even come into consideration.
*finding
Funding works as well LOL F.A.C says they can sure use it.
Absolutely right, David. That word “punishment” was what we were looking for. That is always the test for whether a law is unconstitutionally retroactive. Of course, we on the registries always knew that we were continuing to be punished long after serving our sentences and paying off our debt to society.
David
If we ever (As a collective) ever get off this lifetime registration, I want to meet a bunch of people on here and have a B.A.P. (A Big Ass Party.) Handshakes, hugs and hopefully not covid masks. Lots of spiked punch , Caviar, um no (Gross) Ok maybe Porter house steaks.
Maybe this will be of some use to someone:
Michigan Public Radio: Federal judge clarifies how to enforce changes to Michigan’s sex offender registry.
https://www.michiganradio.org/post/federal-judge-clarifies-how-enforce-changes-michigans-sex-offender-registry
So the deadline has passed for the parties to file their proposed final judgment.
I’m assuming the parties did file their proposals, and we should hear something from Judge Cleland soon. The July 12 deadline does not mean Cleland has to enter his final order that day.
Give him time.
Well, yeah, Judge Cleland needs time to read the parties’ submitted proposals and decide what he might (or might not) incorporate into his final decision.
What would be really helpful for us in general would be if some folks could put together a list with accurate information regarding how these various state registries actually work. Klaas Kids has had a table for years that used to give a fairly decent explanation of how the state registries worked, at least as applied to people convicted in the particular state they were talking about. What we run into often is a state that says oh you can get off of the registry in 10 years 15 years 20 years you say great. But then you find out that only applies to people convicted in the state. I thought for a while that Indiana would be a possibility. Then I find out that they put anyone coming into the state even Indiana people that had left the state and come back, on the lifetime registry. No the federal court there in the Eighth Circuit knocked that law down here recently, but as we’ve discovered from Michigan and a bunch of other places in the comments of our local sheriffs in Florida, court decisions don’t mean crap. Likewise, I’m sure that very few of us knew that if you were an offender in Florida, not a predator, and you moved to Vermont, you would fall off the registry after 10 years from end of sanctions without even having to request it. In my case my probation ended in June 2006 and had I moved to Vermont and say July 2016, I never would’ve had to register. There are other states, like Massachusetts, where you’re on for 20 years unless you’re a predator, but you can petition after 10 years to get an early release from registration. The problem is you first have to move to Massachusetts and then find out if you qualify for that reduction in time. They were other places like Washington, Oregon and Colorado we’re an out-of-state her either might be able to get off the registry and as little as 10 years after sanctions and or not be on the public registry. That was the case in Washington until some local politician sued to allow private entities like those idiots in Long Island and apparently in Seattle to create their own little registry for the tier 1 offenders. We have heard of many states saying that an out-of-state offender is automatically Deemed a lifetime registrant just because they’re from out of state. The normal more lenient registration requirements do not apply to us. We’ve seen that in places like Rhode Island where they say our rules are your rules which ever or worse and we seen that in other places too. Ohio is a good example where half of the registration rules were knocked down by the federal courts and state Supreme Court, but is our compatriot Derek Logue discovered, no the old rules nor the new rules apply it out of stators. He was from Alabama and got a lifetime registration for a relatively minor offense and they just made that the rule for him in Ohio, even after their rules were gutted by the courts. On the other hand we have places like Georgia where the state was hammered by their own courts in the federal courts and when they rewrote the laws, they applied them to everyone equally. even out of staters. And then you have kind of the Inbetweeners like Tennessee where the rule for most of us would’ve been 10 years and we’ve been convicted in Tennessee, but the way it works for folks from out of state is either 10 years total or five years on the Tennessee registry which ever is longer. The problem is that if you’re on the registry all of the residency restrictions and Internet rules apply to you. From what I have found, Georgia seems to be about the only place where you can go and have a Decent chance of getting off of the registry after a while and you can afford. That’s the problem with Vermont these days. Even the southern parts of Vermont near Massachusetts are no longer cheap like they were four years ago. The big metro area around Burlington which contains about half the population of the state, was never cheap. My long winded point being it would be nice to have this kind of information all in one place . We have seen the ongoing development of the international Megans law list for various countries, but I think this would be much better information for a lot of us.
Not to worry, JoeM, the Federal SORNA will fix all…… Or it will turn it all into an even bigger cluster*uck – if that’s even possible!! 😖🙄
The court held a retroactive punishment of the 2011 amendments to SORA can not be served. Could some one who actually knows what this mean please tell me in laymens terms. Does it mean that the 2011 Amendment can no longer be applied to people like my self who are pre-2006 and 2011. I’m actually pre- 1995 , so hopefully this means people like my self will finally be removed from the stupid registry. My original 25 year registry was up last year. June 19th 2020. Any clarification would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
Bobby, the wording is cannot be SEVERED.
Sever means to “cut “. So what it means is the 2011 amendments are so deeply interwoven into the sora law, that it cannot be just taken out, or “cut out, removed, etc.” without the entire law becoming a mess.
That is why the Michigan Legislature was ordered to write a new law, which they actually did not do. They just amended it, removing certain portions that could be removed without rewriting the entire law.
Bobby, as Disgusted in Michigan pointed out, no one seems yet to be adhering to everything in the original rulings. What will this judge’s final order do? He hinted at this most recent writing that he may be inclined to let some of the old law still be enforced. He also seems to concede that the new amendments will likely face new court challenges. All we can do now is hope his final order will accomplish something of value.
Not only did the Judge say that the 2011 amendments could NOT be severed in his ruling last year, he also stated that because of that the old law could not be applied IN TOTAL to those who committed their crime prior to 2011. Then in his recent order last month he said that the new law MAY NOT be applied retroactively to those individuals convicted before 2011. Properly considered together, it means that those whose crimes were before 2011 should actually have no current Michigan law requiring them to register. The complication is that the Judge ordered the parties on both sides to submit an agreed upon final order. If the plaintiffs compromised with the state, it could still leave people like you and me on some kind of a registry. The Judge hoped that the parties would come to a compromise agreement to lessen the chance of further appeals. I hope that they didn’t agree. I hope that the final order stays completely in the Judge’s hands, and that he remembers his last 2 orders stating that both the old SORA and the new amended one are unconstitutional and can’t be applied to those whose crimes were before 2011. It really is what his rulings on the law were, and the plaintiffs MUST hold him to that.
Disgusted in Michigan, you just touched on one of the truly saddest parts of the public’s hatred of convicted sex offenders. Even though the law classifies them as violent offenders, most are very kind and peaceful. I was moved to a sex offender treatment unit for 2 years in prison. I was finally in an environment where I didn’t have to worry anymore about having my belongings stolen. No more fights in the restrooms. Everyone treating each other with respect. I personally spent much of my time in prison protecting little guys who were being preyed upon by thugs. Even corrections officers who didn’t want to work in the units housing “those” guys changed their minds after seeing how much more peaceful it was there. My girlfriend never wanted to get involved with me because she saw my name on the registry. But once she got a chance to know me as her nextdoor neighbor, she could tell that I was a very good guy who did something wrong in the past, but was never going to do it again. But it still hurts me that she will be exposed to judgmental opinions from others for being with a sex offender.