The Sixth Circuit’s recent decision in Does v. Snyder, __ F.3d __, 2016 WL 4473231 (6th Cir. 2016), has significant implications for the representation of current registrants who are charged with violating Michigan’s Sex Offender Registration Act (SORA), current registrants seeking removal from the sex offender registry or exemptions from certain SORA provisions, defendants currently charged with sex offenses, and defendants in “recapture” cases. While every case is obviously unique, this memo seeks to provide some general guidance to Michigan’s criminal defense bar in the wake of the Does decision.…
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MI: Sex offender laws and the 6th Circuit’s Ex Post Facto Clause ruling
The Volokh Conspiracy: I wanted to add a few words to co-blogger Jonathan Adler’s posting about the recent 6th Circuit decision in Doe v. Snyder, in which the court voided application of the Michigan Sex Offender Registration Act (SORA) on the grounds that it imposes retroactive punishment on previously convicted sex offenders in violation of the constitutional prohibition against Ex Post Facto laws. Full Editorial Related MI: Court voids state sex offender registry for imposing unconstitutionally retroactive punishment [UPDATED]
Read MoreMI: Politics & Prejudices – How about a financial offender list?
How’s this idea: The government starts a financial offenders’ list that includes every slumlord who has ever been convicted of code violations. We add to that all the subprime mortgage scum who almost destroyed our economy. Full Editorial Related MI: Court voids state sex offender registry for imposing unconstitutionally retroactive punishment [UPDATED]
Read MoreJudges Are Starting to Question Overzealous Sex-Offender Laws
There’s a stark divide between lawmakers and experts when it comes to laws which restrict where registered sex offenders can live. Cities and states all around the country have enthusiastically banned offenders from living too close to schools — and introduced other, similarly oriented restrictions — on the grounds that such legislation is a common-sense way to help keep kids safe. Experts, on the other hand, have insisted that these laws at the very least don’t reduce recidivism, and could have the opposite of the intended effect, increasing the odds…
Read MoreThe 6th Circuit Finally Said The Magic Word: Punitive
Of the many legal fictions enjoyed by judges, few have done as much damage to as many people as calling sex offender registries “regulatory.” The trick is that if it’s characterized as regulatory, then it’s not punitive. And if it’s punitive, then it opens a whole slew of constitutional rights that would render the concept unlawful. But if legislators squint and write the “r” word instead of the “p” word, and judges squint and agree, problem solved! Full Editorial
Read MoreMI: Court voids state sex offender registry for imposing unconstitutionally retroactive punishment [UPDATED]
UPDATED with media links – Today the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit held that recent amendments to Michigan’s Sex Offender Registration Act (SORA) are unconstitutional because they impose retroactive punishment on sex offenders in violation of the Constitution’s prohibition on ex post facto laws. Among other things, the plaintiffs argued that amendments to Michigan’s SORA increased the severity of its requirements after their convictions imposed retroactive punishment. In John Does #1-5 v. Snyder, the Sixth Circuit agreed. Full Article Decision Statement of Facts Oral Argument Related Media Articles Federal…
Read MoreMI: Convicted sex offender running for county sheriff
BAY CITY, Mich. — A man convicted of sex crimes and ordered to register as a sex offender wants to be Bay County’s sheriff — and under Michigan elections law it’s legal for him to seek the office. Full Article
Read MoreMI: Mom wants sex offender boyfriend to spend time with kids
An unusual court battle is playing out in Macomb County. A woman is fighting to allow her boyfriend to see her children but the issue is that the mom’s boyfriend is a register sex offender. Now the woman wants the judge to reverse the agreement she made to bar him from having contact with the children. Full Article
Read MoreMI: Indecent exposure, criminal past brings sex offender prison term of 1 day to life
A man who exposed himself near a Grandville mall and later took video of a woman in a Tanger Outlet Mall changing room is heading to prison for what could be the rest of his life. Full Article
Read MoreMI: Prosecutor known for fighting prostitution charged with paying for sex hundreds of times
When it came to hiring prostitutes for sex, police say, Stuart Dunnings III preferred escort websites such as Escort Vault and Backpage.com. Most of the time, police say, Dunnings would meet the women at motels. Occasionally, they’d meet at a pimp’s house. His was a ferocious habit, one that led the 63-year-old to shell out hundreds of dollars three or four times a week for a revolving cast of heroin-addled sex workers. By the time he was arrested Monday outside a Lansing, Mich., coffee shop, Dunnings had racked up hundreds of illegal…
Read MoreMI: Judge to rule on ex-wife’s request for sex-offender boyfriend
A Macomb County judge said Monday he will issue an opinion this week on a woman’s attempt to allow her boyfriend to have contact with her children even though he is a sex offender. Judge Matthew Switalski promised the opinion from the bench after listening to attorneys for the ex-husband and ex-wife argue the motion in Macomb County Circuit Court. ____ ____ of Warren wants to be able to eventually marry ____ ____ who is on the Sex Offender Registry for a 1994 one-time sexual incident when he was an 18-year-old high school…
Read MoreHe ‘couldn’t fight back’: Mom of beaten baby wants abuser registry
On a November morning in 2013, Erica Hammel learned over the phone that her 1-year-old son Wyatt was near death — hospitalized with a skull fracture and brain damage after being violently shaken by a woman trusted to care for him. Hammel would later learn the woman had twice been convicted of child abuse — a revelation that led the Michigan mother to fight for a state-wide child abuser registry, which, if passed, would be the first of its kind in the nation. Full Article
Read MoreMI: Sixth Circuit Considers Internet Restrictions on Former Sex Offenders This Week
The Center for Democracy & Technology has filed an amicus brief in the Sixth Circuit case Doe v. Snyder, a case challenging unconstitutional registration requirements imposed on former sex offenders and brought by the ACLU of Michigan. CDT is joined on the brief by the First Amendment Lawyers Association and Professor David G. Post, an expert in Internet law. The court is holding oral arguments Wednesday, January 27. Full Article
Read MoreMI: Michigan Supreme Court takes sex offender list case
The Michigan Supreme Court has agreed to look at the case of a man who’s on the sex offender list for life, although his conviction was erased nearly 20 years ago. Full Article
Read MoreMI: Senate bill restoring 1,000-foot sex offender-free zone around schools clears judiciary committee
LANSING (WKZO-AM) — Legislation restoring a one thousand-foot zone around public schools where registered sex offenders cannot work or live has cleared the Senate Judiciary Committee. Committee chairperson Rick Jones, R-Grand Ledge, authored the bill in response to a federal judicial ruling that tossed out the law as unconstitutionally vague. “If sex offenders are hanging around schools, lets put them away,” Jones said. Full Article
Read MoreMI: Sex offender suit says Michigan registry unfairly restricts housing, employment
GRAND RAPIDS, MI – A man on Michigan’s Sex Offender Registry contends changes in the law severely restrict access to housing and contain requirements so vague that offenders cannot know if they are in compliance. Full Article
Read MoreMI: Inmate Who Killed Child Molester Offers Simple Explanation For Why He Did It
Steven D. Sandison, 51, a now-former inmate at Saginaw Regional Correctional Facility in Freeland, Michigan, offered a simple explanation for killing his cellmate, ____ ____, 67, in October 2014. “The reason I killed him was because he was a child molester,” Sandison told Chief Circuit Judge Fred L. Borchard on Monday, MLive reported. Full Article
Read MoreIN: 20-year-old on sex-offender registry gets leniency
An Indiana man, who was looking at spending more than two decades on the sexual offender registry for a dating app hookup, got some good news. A judge has resentenced Zach Anderson to two years’ probation — a decision that will keep him off Michigan’s list and possibly off Indiana’s as well. Anderson was 19 when he had sex with a 14-year-old Michigan girl who had told him she was 17. Even if the sex was consensual and even if the girl did lie about her age, it is not…
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