May 12, 2020, 1:05 pm
In an opinion issued yesterday in the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania, a person forced to register as a sex offender had the registry declared unconstitutional as applied to him, an individual whose offense was committed prior to the date of the registry or certain of it’s provisions.
You can read the 58 page, well-reasoned opinion here: t.s._v._psp
Pennsylvania had previously and recently (2017) had it’s registry declared unconstitutional (Commonwealth v. Muniz), but then the legislature went back and tried to fix the constitutional issues. The significance of this recent case is that the Court concluded that the changes made by the PA General Assembly in an effort to correct the deficiencies the Supreme Court had found in Muniz do not sufficiently alter the balance test of whether the law is punitive.
The following excerpt from the opinion is very telling: Petitioner is subject to arrest and criminal sanction if he does not verify his residence, notify PSP of changes,or appear for in-person registration, 42 Pa.C.S. §9799.56(d). Consistent with our Supreme Court’s precedent, and following Muniz, we discern no material difference between the conditions imposed in probation and the conditions imposed upon Petitioner under subchapter I of Act 29.
The post PA: Another case finds Pennsylvania registry violates state and federal ex post facto prohibition appeared first on Florida Action Committee.
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Author: Florida Action Committee
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