Michigan’s pre-2021 SORA is DECLARED to be punishment!
The final Judgment just came out from the Eastern District of Michigan and it’s a good one!
Michigan’s pre-2021 SORA is DECLARED to be punishment!
Ex post facto application of the 2006 and 2011 amendments is DECLARED unconstitutional, the 2011 amendments are DECLARED not severable from the pre-2021 SORA, and the pre-2021 SORA is therefore DECLARED NULL AND VOID as applied to conduct that occurred before March 24, 2021 to members of the ex post facto subclasses (defined as all people who are or will be subject to registration under SORA, who committed their offense or offenses requiring registration prior to April 12, 2011, and who have committed no registrable offense since).
The caveat to this order is, “As this litigation did not address the constitutionality of the new SORA (as defined above), this injunction does not enjoin enforcement of any provision in the new SORA (as defined above).”
That, unquestionably, will be the focus of a new lawsuit, but in the mean time, this order represents a victory for registrants in Michigan, for the ACLU and the attorneys fighting this long battle.
https://www.mied.uscourts.gov/PDFFIles/16-13137DoesFinalJmt.pdf
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Thanks CJ & Gerald.
So now I must ask, what’s the point of our out-of-state challenge IF you have to register in the state you’re moving to? Sure it might get you off Floriduh’s, but as long as you are on any state’s registry, you are on the national website.
https://www.nsopw.gov/
The biggest point is that every time a case challenges a registry ANYWHERE, it is a chance to get the true facts out in public about registries and those on them. That registries DON’T make communities safer. That sex offenders DON’T have a high risk of recidivism. That registries DO punish people for years after they have served their sentences.
So with a 2006 conviction, is it time for me to pack up and head for the U.P.?
Or does Michigan have the multi-state carve out that states if you are still on your state of origin registry, you must go on Michigan’s?
This carve-out makes it nearly impossible to leave Floriduh.
JZ
I learned the hard way that the grass is not always greener on the other side of the fence, or the other side of the U.S. As soon as I got off probation, I sold my house and moved to California. I was at the registration office for 3 hours in San Diego.
The Registration officer went over all the rules and asked me “Are you sure you want to be this far from your family living in Worse conditions than you left?” (Their registry was as bad if not worse at the time than Florida’s) I clearly did not think this through properly and after 3 days of trying to get my rent deposit back, I came home.
What is funny is the way I got my deposit back. I did not inform them I was on the registry because I thought I didn’t have to be on it when I moved to Cali. When they refused to return my deposit, I told them, “OK but you cannot kick me out and keep my deposit once you find out I am a registered sex offender right?” After verifying that, I got a check within an hour LOL
My Point is, if you are trying to get away from this crap in Florida, realize many states make you go by what your state mandates. You might end up moving into a hornets nest. At least I know what to expect here, that is until the Sheriff’s harassment squads do their illegal & immoral “Operation save the World from the freaks” tour.
Yes jz, you do have to register in Michigan when you move here if you were on a registry in another state. In fact, I believe that the law states that you must register in Michigan if you were convicted anywhere else of a crime that would place you on Michigan’s registry. Also keep in mind that many states require you to inform them of your new address when you move out of state.
I’ve seen several posts here wondering where they can get specific information on what Florida’s law requires. That is the biggest problem in Michigan right now. I can look up Michigan’s SORA law online and read the entire thing. However, it has to had amendments added to it several times over the years. The “new” SORA is actually composed of the old law plus amendments earlier this year. I have talked to local law enforcement officials who can’t decipher it and tell you what applies to you. Everything still seems to depend upon the date when your crime was committed. Judge Cleland really should have addressed the constitutionality of the new SORA as well, especially since it is so intertwined with the old law, AND because the new law was drafted and passed in response to the Judge’s own ruling in this case requiring the state to pass a new law. As someone pointed out, this ruling in Michigan seems to open the possibility that a state can dodge ANY adverse ruling by a federal court by simply passing new unconstitutional laws that will need to go through years of appellate review. We saw it recently in Florida when the voters themselves directly restored voting rights to exfelons, only to have the state try to circumvent that law by barring voting if the person had any unpaid fines. Legislators seem determined to continue punishment of people after their sentences have been served in any way that they can come up with.
Lawmakers must stop moving the goalposts on a dime just because they can. Be nice if the goalposts actually went towards the elimination of restrictions on registrants and the registry in the history books as a disaster.
To clarify, there isn’t an “old” and “new” sora in Michigan. It was just amended. When Judge Cleland said it cannot be applied retroactively, he is talking about any conduct that would have been a violation prior to the amendments taking place. We are still required to register. While there was one good thing, the abolishing of the school safety zones, it still leaves in place the 2011 amendment that changed many of us from 25 years to lifetime registration. Hopefully that will be the main focus in the next lawsuit.
Eliminating the school safety zones is indeed a huge win for registrants who have children in school, and since I cannot be prosecuted now, I have ALWAYS attended my daughter’s school functions. There were times in the past when she needed to be picked up and my girlfriend couldn’t do it so I went and got her. What was I supposed to do? Make her walk? Screw that.
Everyone also needs to understand that our Judge did NOT declare registries in general to be punishment. He declared OUR registry, as written, to be punishment, and while those amendments that he did declare to be punishment in his final order is not binding outside of the 6th circuit, other States are able to use it in their own courts as advisement only, not case law.
I’m glad that we did get a some scraps tossed to us by his ruling, but the 2011 amendment changing 25 year’s registration to lifetime still needs to be addressed, as it was never brought up in the lawsuit. Why it wasn’t leaves me very confused, but Cleland’s final order leaves the door wide open to eliminate it in future litigation.
A rulung like this sure would be welcome in Flori-DUH.