The New Jersey Supreme Court on Wednesday held 2014 amendments to Megan’s Law enhancing certain penalties for sex offenders who violate parole requirements unenforceable against four defendants based on the ex post facto clauses of both the state and federal constitutions.
Related:
NJ Supreme Court finds Ex Post Facto violations as applied to 4 sex offenders [floridaactioncommittee.org – 5/31/18]
The story is behind a paywall. The actual decision, “State v. Melvin Hester / Mark Warner / Anthony McKinney / Linwood Roundtree (A-91-16) (079228)” can be found at the following link (PDF Download):
https://www.judiciary.state.nj.us/attorneys/assets/opinions/supreme/a_91_16.pdf?cacheID=zw335DW
In a nutshell: the four defendants were sentenced to Community Supervision for Life (CSL), a special sentence that followed their custodial sentence. The decision stems from the fact that additional punishment was given to the defendants after their original sentencing. Read the syllabus from the opinion, the first two pages of the link, followed by the opinion.
It should be noted that the decision was 5-0, which means no dissent.
Another great win for Registrants! Another State saying retroactive application of new Megan’s Law rrstriction unconstitutionally violates ex post facto!
(BTW, Eric, it’s free to sign-up to that website – at no cost, it’s free – and you’ll get 5 free articles per month.)
It’s pretty sad that this case had to go all the way to NJ SC. It’s clearly an increase in punishment. But only in the bizzarro RC world does a post-sentence change of parole to “for life” have to be fought so long and hard. It still astonishes me the rabid defense and pursuit of all things RC. Laws, what laws? Constitution, what constitution? *SMH*
It appears they are still subject to life on parole. That I believe is the same as life in prison. It is a life sentence of punishment so I believe there has to be extra protection such as a person receiving life in prison gets. I think they get some kind of further due process or something like capital punishment does. Not sure but it sure seems like a life sentence should require heightened scrutiny.
Wow! Add New Jersey Supreme Court to the list that includes Pennsylvania Muñoz decision, Colorado’s Justice Matsch ruling, etc.:
https://www.law.com/njlawjournal/2018/08/01/supreme-court-sets-new-evidentiary-standard-in-child-sex-abuse-cases/
Wow! Add New Jersey Supreme Court to the list that includes Pennsylvania Muñoz decision, Colorado’s Justice Matsch ruling, etc. The New Jersey Supreme Court actually listened to the scientific research and findings! Maybe they can now look at the truly low recidivism rates for those convicted of sexual offenses and rule accordingly with regard to those as well. Who knows, maybe they’ll even begin to regard Megan’s Law restrictions and requirements as the ex post facto punishments they truly are!
https://www.law.com/njlawjournal/2018/08/01/supreme-court-sets-new-evidentiary-standard-in-child-sex-abuse-cases/