SCOTUS refuses to hear PA case that found sex offender registry punishment.
The Supreme Court of the United States today denied a petition from the Cumberland County District Attorney’s Office to review a July decision from the Pennsylvania Supreme Court that found the state’s current sex offender registration law was punishment and therefore could not be applied retroactively under ex post facto constitutional grounds!
The ruling from the court was brief:
PENNSYLVANIA V. MUNIZ, JOSE M.
The motion of respondent for leave to proceed in forma pauperis is granted. The petition for a writ of certiorari is denied.
Just like the Snyder case out of the 6th Circuit last year, the highest nation in the land has refused to review a case that found the sex offender registry constitutes punishment. This is good news!
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Shaun,
Florida does not have a tier system, so there would have been no “reclassification”
Some individuals (not FAC collectively, because most FAC members are still IN Florida) who are no longer in FL but still on the registry, are working on a suit to get themselves removed (since they are no longer here and the “public notification” is unjustified).
If you are interested in learning more about the suit, write to [email protected] and we’ll put you in touch with the lawyer.
Shaun,
You can do it, but you will have to wait til you get off the registry in your state. When you get off the registry then go to the tbi.gov website and pull up the address write the a letter asking for you to be removed from the registry and send proof that you were taken off the registry where you are. That should get you off in Tennessee I am not sure about Florida I would think it would work in sorta the same fashion maybe..Best of Luck
David
I have a question, It pertains to the HB101 law that the State is trying to get passed tomorrow. IF the Registery is NOT considered PUNISHMENT, Then why are hundreds of people getting new charges for not following the IMPOSSIBLE requirements that the “REGISTERY” requires ???. I can’t see how the “Law” can PUNISH anyone for ANYTHING when it comes to the “REGISTERY” !! Because the “LAW” swears it’s not Punishment !!!! I can’t believe a descent lawyer hasn’t crammed this contradicting crap deep down the “Laws” throats !!!????. This has got to STOP !!!. Now we’re going to have to change all our Info if we leave home over 3 days ????? WTF ????????? Who’s gonna pay for a new Drivers License ?? New Registration’s ??, How are we supposed to go do these changes when were not even “Wherever” long enough to go to the DMV ?? It’s all about the MONEY and another way to stick us IN JAIL or PUNISH us more for a crime WE’VE ALREADY PAID OUR DEBT TO SOCIETY FOR !!!!. Something has to be done !! This is TOTALLY AGAINST THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES !!!. Everything about the “Registery” is ILLEGAL according to Our CONSTITUTION !!!. I didn’t know the “Government” was allowed to Bend and Twist the Laws of our Nation to OUTCAST part of our CITIZENS !!!!!??????.
Welcome to the world of the double bind. I totally get where you guys are coming from..Being on the sex offender registry is equal to probation minus the piss test and I am surprised they have not pulled that one over on us. I live in Tennessee and I saw a post on google that people were moving to this state for lax laws on the sex offender registry!! Bull****!! I plead guilty to a Class C felony in the state of Kentucky where I do not even have to register but moved to Tennessee and was told that the equivalent to what I plead to was a Class B Felony in this state and was put at at tier 3 lifetimer. I cannot understand how you plea out to a Class C Felony and are held to the standard of a Class B Felony it makes no since whatsoever!! Then you know how they are suppose to put the state you committed the crime in and have all your correct info on the registry..Well they do not have it on mine..It says no where Kentucky conviction so if you pull me up you would think that I committed the crime in Tennessee and it still says I have a probation officer named Paig Jackson..I was on probation from 91-96 and never had a female probation officer. I cannot believe that I am even having to type this all these years later. I was 18 when I got in trouble now 45 years old, never been charged with another thing period and here I am all these years later having to worry with this Scarlet Letter they have branded most of us with..It sucks, they can walk all over the constitution and do anything they want with us, but like you said..Its not punishment..What do you call it praise??!!!
It is good news that the high court refused to hear the case ruling sex offenders registry is punishment. ( I never understood) how educated men would take a released sex offender who completed his punishment. Then years later retroactively send him notice that he is now on a list, with restrictions that the best of mankind would find difficult to keep, and mark this individual as an outcast to society. The more challenges that are ruled in our favor, the weaker the sex laws in Florida will become. This hope. something, we have not had (in my case since 1992). Released went right to a job, worked hard, promoted to a corporate position even though I was placed retroactively two years after my release on the registry. Not one run in with the law since my release from confinement. Not even a ticket of any kind. We deserve to live like any other person in the world, I did a bad thing, something I will never forget, something I will never forgive myself of and I pray for my victim to have peace and a good life. I am not a bad person……….. often we cry inside and there are times we cant hide the tears. As I pray for forgiveness, I pray for forgiveness for those that are causing pain and punishment to us. As I pray our courts and politicians open there eyes and see what they are doing to us, our families our inability to live because of them. We are not all Monsters and those that are should be punished by the law, god knows we have enough of them.
This may not be the right thread to post this, but on ACSOL I surmised that a barrage of civil cases filed by SO victims/family members of vigilante violence tied directly to the registry could be very effective in dissolving the registry, based on local legislatures increasingly repealing ordinances to avoid lawsuits. It would take a lot of them, though. Would be interesting to hear other opinions on the idea.
I agree
We will win here too, after all, there is always change happening. G is correct, we need to condition ourselves to be grateful because positive energy works to make positive outcomes.
How is that SCOTUS decision a good thing?