Source: coloradopolitics.com 4/27/26
The Colorado Supreme Court concluded on Monday that lifetime sex offender registration is not cruel and unusual punishment because it is not “punishment.”
At the same time, two members urged lawmakers to heed the advice of the Sex Offender Management Board and adopt a new, more accurate system of measuring a person’s risk of recidivism.
Under Colorado law, “sexually violent predators” are subject to lifetime sex offender registration. To qualify, they must be 18 years or older, convicted of certain offenses, commit the offense against certain types of people and, finally, be “likely to subsequently commit one or more” sexual offenses.
Although the legislature has not deemed lifetime registration to be “punishment,” Colorado’s justices were confronted with the question of whether lifetime registration still exhibits clear hallmarks of punishment.
No, they concluded.
The legal requirement to notify the community about sexually violent predators and the difficulty finding employment or housing, wrote Justice Brian D. Boatright, do not transform lifetime registration into punishment.
“Public shaming is typically understood to involve confrontation that is both ‘direct’ and ‘face-to-face,’ yet nothing in the community notification statute mandates such face-to-face confrontation,” he wrote in the April 27 opinion. “Additionally, any shaming that occurs via ‘vitriol and threats’ in the comment sections of social media posts is not government sponsored.”
Timothy Paul Beagle pleaded guilty in Jefferson County to …
Did anyone else see the Colorado State Supreme Court ruling that the registry is not punishment?
Travel notifications to the US Virgin Islands is a bunch of baloney and is unconstitutional at its basic core. However, territories don’t have the same protections as states do because states are a full-blown sovereign.
@TS: I believe this (link) is the Colorado Supreme Court opinion. Notably, two of the concurring justices issued a separate opinion saying that, while they don’t find the label unconstitutional, there is evidence that it is unhelpful and should be reconsidered by the legislature.
Teachers being teachers? Another FLA teacher arrested this week on alleged sexual impropriety with a student minor despite the knowledge that will get one in trouble. Have to start asking if the students are the ones perpetuating this and trapping the teacher (despite knowing better).
The other one read is the financial advisor who was accused of something sexually she did not do after the filing accusing her was retracted by the gent who accused her. She is now on the WWW forever with that attached to her through no fault of hers. Words have consequences and she will have to face this with the heat PFRs face as well, sadly.
Yes, that is the one from CO. The article below does a good job of presenting the case and what the justices believe is the reality of the related situation. Unfortunately, I think they missed the mark in some of the analysis (as usual), but at least two did note the tools may not be what they need to be for effectiveness of the system they believe is for the advancement of the people’s alleged safety from those who rarely pose a threat. Of course, they based their thinking on an outdated case nearly 25 years old (Does v Smith) and don’t believe the housing and employment outcomes from the registry is punishment or govt sponsored as the public does what they do. Pretty much they followed what their judicial siblings did in the Tenth a few years earlier in Millard v Rankin (now Sloan).
Given the CO SOMB doesn’t have the best reputation as noted in this forum previously and online through their history, maybe someone will actually decide to face the tools for reworking into something better.
I genuinely don’t understand how something like this isn’t “punishment”? I think it might be time for a database of judges and politicians addresses to be public.