One-fourth of the names on Maryland's sex offender registry could be removed after the state's top court on Monday expanded on an earlier ruling that adding offenders from before the list was created violated the state constitution.
The Court of Appeals declared last year that the state could not require the registration of people who committed their crimes before October 1995, when the database was established. State officials removed the one name in question in that case but maintained that federal law required them to keep older cases in the database.
On Monday, the judges ruled in that case and another one that federal law doesn't override the state constitution.
"Where we have declared the retroactive application of Maryland's sex offender registry to be unconstitutional, the State must remove [the men's] information from the registry," Judge Clayton Greene Jr. wrote for the court.
Activists for sex offender rights, who say the registries are punitive and do little to protect future victims, hailed the ruling, but victims' advocates expressed disappointment. They see the registry as a useful tool to alert families to potential predators in their midst
As many as 1,800 of the state's 8,000 or so registered sex offenders could be affected by the decisions, and other cases are pending that could expand the number of people whose names are scrubbed.
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7 comments:
Protecting kid touchers... An American tradition. I expect this from the churches, but not government.
They aren't being monitored anyway because of an overwhelming case load,so maybe this will work out for the best.Things were different back in the day when there was a manageable # of offenders.The # of offenders increased in direct proportion to the increasing population.
say it isn't so...
Its so. Looks like the libs have taken over.
One problem with some of these registries is that they include cases of 17-year-old boys having consensual sex with their 15-year-old girlfriends. I'm not endorsing the behavior, but the boys are hardly predators. In some states, older teens who take part in "sexting" end up on the registries. Again, not commendable, but hardly anything to be greatly feared. The other problem I see is that the registries may promote a false sense of security. It's fine to know that the guy down the street is in the registry, but what about the guy around the corner who hasn't yet been caught or hasn't yet committed his first offense?
Queens girl is back showing off her super stupid thought process. No boy @17 Has ever been convicted of having sex with a 15 yr old girl. This is Maryland not NY
What does the guy whom hasn't been caught yet or The guy whom hasn't committed his first offense have anything To do with the situation. I agree with the other reply. Every time you comment you spew ignorance. Please educate yourself before you speak.
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