The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has held that retroactive application of a provision of the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (”SORNA”), part of the 2006 Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act, violates the ex post facto clause of the United States Constitution.
SORNA requires adult and juvenile sex offenders convicted before its enactment to register with the National Sex Offender Registry. A lawsuit challenging the law was brought by a juvenile who had been adjudicated as a sex offender in 2005, before passage of SORNA. The Ninth Circuit held that the law’s retroactive application to juvenile offenders violates the ex post facto clause. The court distinguished the case at hand from a Supreme Court case, Smith v. Doe, 538 U.S. 84 (2003), which held that retroactive application of a similar state statute to adult offenders was constitutional. The Ninth Circuit made a distinction between the cases, noting convictions of adult offenders, such as in Doe, are matters of public record, while juvenile proceedings are not such openly public matters.
Source: http://www.loc.gov/lawweb/servlet/lloc_news?disp1_1579_United%20States
September 30th, 2009 at 9:32 pm
Thank you 9th Circuit Court!! At least some sign of rational thinking and a return to constitutional rights and protections that our forefathers gave their lives to enact.
Readers, you may find this difficult to believe, I did at first, but there are kids as young as 10 on the sex offender registry for “playing doctor” no violence involved; Kids as young as 12 for pinching another kid on the butt just joking around; a long list of teens for “consensual sexual activity”, and men for public urination on the golf course; think about how many men will this one put on the list?!
How many people, including kids as young as 14, will we allow to be prosecuted, incarcerated, subjected to barbaric and abusive treatment (see Plethysmographs, Masturbatory Satiation, Arousal Reconditioning, Cognitive Restructuring of juveniles) and then forced to register as Sex Offenders for the rest of their lives before we bring an end to this insanity?
The current legislation, although very well intended, has seriously failed the true victims of violent sexual assault crimes and their families! And, it has resulted in what I believe were unintended consequences for potentially >95% of all youth and young adults, including girls who are being tried and convicted as sex offenders at an alarming rate across our nation (see Aug 6th Economist cover story: America’s Unjust and Ineffective Sex Laws).
Please, join in the growing effort nation-wide to immediately bring an end to this insanity before an entire generation is lost and registered as sex offenders.
Legislators please change/enact legislation immediately to stop this insanity!