Pa. Supreme Court Further Restricts Sex Offender Registry

See also: A deal is a deal: Pa. Supreme Court blocks retroactive registration boosts for sex offenders

9-16-2016 Pennsylvania:

The remains of Jacob Wetterling, abducted from a rural road in Minnesota 27 years ago, were found this month.

The abduction of the 11-year-old boy led to the 1994 Jacob Wetterling Crimes Against Children and Sexually Violent Offender Registration Act, which required states to maintain sex offender registries and establish guidelines for the registries.

In October 1989, Wetterling was bicycling with his brother and a friend to a store near St. Joseph, Minnesota. During the ride, an armed man wearing a nylon mask abducted Wetterling. Investigators later learned that halfway houses in St. Joseph housed sex offenders after their release from prison. The Jacob Wetterling Act required states, including Pennsylvania, to establish stringent registration programs for sex offenders—including lifetime registration for certain offenders. The registration of sex offenders in Pennsylvania, known as Megan's Law, has had a tumultuous existence, including a number of revisions to comply with several successful challenges before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.

Last month, the state's high court further refined the state's sex offender registry. The Supreme Court made a ruling that will have an impact on determining which sex offenders will be considered lifetime registrants. The court narrowed the ability of the authorities to designate an offender as a lifetime registrant as the result of being convicted of multiple sex offenses in a single incident.

The history of Megan's Law is long and at times confusing. In 1995, Gov. Tom Ridge signed into law what has commonly been referred to as Megan's Law. Following its enactment there were several amendments to the law as a result of court decisions.

About a decade later, Gov. Ed Rendell signed into law Senate Bill No. 92, making significant changes to Megan's Law. Most notably, information on all registered sexual offenders would now be available to the public through the internet. Then in 2012, Gov. Tom Corbett signed into law Senate Bill No. 1183. The law also known as the "Adam Walsh Bill," brought the state into compliance with The Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act. Pennsylvania joined a coordinated and comprehensive national sex offender registry.

Under the new law—known as the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA)—registrants will be placed in one of three tiers based on their underlying offenses.

• Tier I. Registration for 15 years with required annual in-person reporting to the Pennsylvania state police and updated photograph.

• Tier II. Registration for 25 years with semiannual reporting requirements.

• Tier III. Registration for life with in-person reporting every three months.

There is a mandatory minimum sentence of two or three years in prison for the first failure to report and a five-year prison sentence for the first failure to provide accurate information to the state police.

The law also required that two or more convictions of Tier I offense would bump the offender to Tier III or lifetime registration.

The Supreme Court's decision last month will have a significant impact on which tier a sex offender will be assigned. The decision will also impact how prosecutors approach plea negotiating with sex offenders and the way defense attorneys explain to their clients the collateral consequence of a conviction.

In A.S. v. Pennsylvania State Police ___ A.3d ___ (Pa. 2016), the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in an opinion written by Justice Kevin M. Dougherty held that "the statute SORNA 42 Pa.C.S. Section 9799.10-9799.41 requires an act, a conviction, and a subsequent act to trigger lifetime registration for multiple offenses otherwise triggering a 10-year period of registration." ..Continue Sub.. by Matthew T. Mangino, The Legal Intelligencer