According to The Morning Call, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled earlier this year that regulations for convicted sex offenders cannot be applied retroactively.
Pennsylvania’s Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act ( SORNA) expanded the number of crimes requiring an individual to register as a sex offender and the length of time they are required to stay registered. When the legislation was enacted in 2012, lawmakers applied the rules to previous cases as well as future ones, forcing many ex-convicts to remain on the sex offender’s register for longer than they previously had to. Many others had to sign the register for the first time.
In July, five out of six justices agreed that retroactive application of the act would violate the US Consitution’s ban on ex post facto laws.
Aaron Marcus, an attorney representing Defenders Association of Philadelphia and the Pennsylvania Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers in the case, explained the ruling. “The court recognized that sex offender registration in its current form is over-broad, over-inclusive and has limited value in the way it is run,” he said . “It says what a lot of people for a long time have known: Sex offender registration is a punishment,” he added.
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