MI: Whitmer signs bill with long-awaited changes to sex offender law

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Tuesday signed a bill that would eliminate school safety zones and certain appearance requirements in Michigan’s Sex Offender Registration Act. Full ArticleFull Article

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Tnt:
Litigation takes years and we are now coming to the end of the Does litigation. My hope (even though I’m not on the registry) is that Does II becomes final within the next year or two. The Does litigation started in 2012.
On August 25, 2016, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Michigan’s registry is “punishment”. This means they cannot add time to your sentence after the date that you committed the crime, or in this case, add time to your registration.
The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals is one of 12 circuit courts directly below the U.S. Supreme Court. Their decisions are binding on Michigan, Ohio, Tennessee and Kentucky. The Sixth Circuit ruled that Michigan’s registry is punishment so it directly effects only registrants in Michigan. The ruling indirectly effects Tennessee, Kentucky and Ohio. In order to effect these states, the court must examine the state’s registry regimes and make a determination if that state’s registry is punishment. On April 5, 2021 the first court made it’s ruling finding that Tennessee’s registry is punishment. This ruling only effects the 2 named plaintiff’s like Michigan Does I which only effected the named plaintiffs in Michigan (this is why there is a Does I and Does II in Michigan).
This decision was rendered 4 1/2 years after the Sixth Circuit’s decision in the Michigan case. This gives you an idea of how long this process takes. Now registrants in Tennessee must file a Does II to remove everyone else from the registry. There have been no decisions from Ohio or Kentucky as of yet but I anticipate that will only be a matter of time.
The ACLU of Michigan publishes updates to their litigation. The litigation is complex and the ACLU’s explanations are verbose and confusing for most persons. The ACLU concerns itself with the various registration conditions which are too complex. Most registrants aren’t as worried about whether they must report internet identifiers or not as they are worried about the obligation to register period. The single most important question that registrants have is “will I be removed from the registry” not “do I have to report internet identifiers”. Focus only on the aspects of removal not the various nuances. The only dates that involve removal are April 12, 2011 and July 1, 2011. All of the other dates involve if a particular condition of the registry apply to a particular registrant. When I get the time I will send a letter to Miriam Aukerman concerning this confusion and ask her to provide an update solely addressing removal and leaving out the nuances of the various conditions which is only causing confusion.
Leaving out the nuances, the judge ruled that they cannot extend lifetime registration to persons whose crimes were committed prior to 2011, the exact date being either the date the legislation passed (April 12th) or the date the legislation went into effect (July 1). The difference is less than 3 months and effect a small number of people. If your crime was before April 12th, 2011 you will be removed after the decision becomes final and you complete your 25 years registration. Persons whose crimes are after July 1, 2011 will be subject to lifetime registration. Persons whose offenses occurred between April 12, 2011 and July 1, 2011 will depend on the date in the final order. Don’t worry about the legislation that went into effect March 24, 2021. This can be addressed in the judge’s final order.
Long story short. If the judge signs the final order on July 1, 2022, all persons whose offense date preceded April 12, 2011 and have completed 25 years on the registry will be removed from the registry. Persons whose offense date precedes April 12, 2011 will be removed as they complete their 25 years. The question is, when will the judge sign the final order. It could be in 2021, 2022 or 2023. I believe 2022 is the best bet.
You are already seeing the results of this litigation. Michigan has already removed the tier designations of most if not all the registrants. The court ruled that the tiers can only be placed on post 2011 registrants. Expect the tiers to go back up on post 2011 registrants after the dust settles.
You are lucky if you live in Michigan. You live in the first state that will remove registrants en masse after the judge signs the final order. Tennessee is 8 years behind Michigan in this litigation. All of the other states are more than a decade behind Michigan.

Well come June I am supposed to report and pay last 2 extortion installments , as per officer Freisen. Gratiot co. Sheriff department.
So maybe I’ll take one for the team,,,,

David:
Thanks for posing the response.
The motion for clarification is what we’ve been waiting for. This is the first step to challenging the March 24th changes in the law. I would expect that they are dealing with the March 24th changes in the final court order. This is why I believe a final order will be several months out. They must deal with the March 24th issues before they can request a final order.
The March 24th changes in the law are slowing down the process but have no effect on the court’s decisions. I would be surprised to see a final order by the end of the year. It looks as though things will happen in 2022.

Hi everyone, just curious if anyone has heard anything on the Betts case? It just seems like it has been in the court system for ever. Then I was thinking maybe their waiting for Judge Cleland to render his decision on Does lol, or maybe vise versa , but with June just around the corner, don’t the courts take a summer break like the clowns in the Michigan Legislature.

So whitmer can do a clean slate bill for felons but we get screwed with no second chance ever. Kind of b.s.

Hope somebody puts the Ali report on judge Clelands desk, might speed things up!

Usually I just lurk on here and have been following what a lot have you have been saying. Most of the regular posters have good info to pass along and I for one, appreciate it. I just want to share my experience with the MSP today when I went to verify.

Like most, I haven’t verified since the injunction was put into place so today was my 1st time since my last verification in 2019. I changed jobs back in November of 2020 and that’s what had me most nervous to go but I figure the injunction will be lifted soon and would rather be safe than sorry (have had zero SOR violations so far and I joined the club in 2004 at 18yrs old, CSC 4th..750.520E1A). So I went to MSP post #13 (Jackson) and had to call them from the lobby door so they could let me in (did not need to make an appointment). Desk Sgt asked if I had any fees to pay or changes to make, told him yes to both. Asked me to lay both on the counter with my ID and have a seat. About 5mins later asked me when I changed jobs, told him November 2020 and explained that I hadn’t updated due to the injunction. About 10mins later he gets up and disappears (not gonna lie, my heart sank), apparently the printer is in the next room LOL. Had me sign the thing, chit chatted about all the confusion with the new laws and told me to have a nice day, he’ll see me in December.

I pushed out verifying as far as I was comfortable with and seems I am ok. This is such a helpful website for us RSO’s and I felt I could share my experience that I had today and maybe help out others as well.

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