Attorneys: New sex offender-registry requirements unfair
By The Associated Press
Friday, May 16, 2008 8:40 PM EDT
FORT WAYNE - A man convicted of sex crimes against a child is challenging the constitutionality of a state statute that retroactively broadened a law regarding Indiana's sex offender registry.
Ted Jensen pleaded guilty eight years ago to one count of vicarious sexual gratification and one count of child molesting. The Allen County man spent three years in prison and another three on probation.
He was also required under a separate state law at the time to register as a sex offender for 10 years. But in 2006, the Allen County Sheriff's Department notified him that he was considered a sexually violent predator and would have to register for life.
That includes checking in with the department every 90 days and submitting to house visits by authorities several times a year.
Attorneys for Jensen and Richard Wallace, who pleaded guilty in 1989 to child molesting, argued before the state Supreme Court on Thursday that legislators violated the Indiana Constitution when they passed the law.
‘‘The state says the registry is civil in nature,'' said Jensen's attorney, Randy Fisher. But he noted that each year the Legislature adds or changes requirements of the registry. ‘‘There has to be a threshold. It is clearly punitive.''
The state Court of Appeals ruled in December that the new law retroactively changed the elements or facts required to find Jensen a sexually violent predator - against ex post facto requirements in the state and federal constitutions.
The Indiana Supreme Court vacated the Jensen decision and took the case up Thursday along with Wallace's case. It is the latest battle over whether lawmakers have been too aggressive in their desire to monitor convicted sex offenders.
The Court of Appeals ruled on Tuesday that the state cannot force convicted sex offenders who live near schools or other places frequented by children to move if they owned their homes before a state law restricting their residency was passed.
The key argument Thursday was whether the state's sex offender registry is punitive in nature or increases punishment for old crimes.
‘‘The intent isn't to attach additional punishment,'' deputy attorney general J.T. Whitehead said. ‘‘It is to put the rest of us on notice and make it easier for police to track these offenders.''
But Fisher said the registry requires those convicted to sign up, provide information, pay fees and carry ID at all times. If they don't, they can be charged with a criminal violation.
‘‘They are like additional conditions of probation and sentence, and it never ends,'' said Wallace's attorney, Kathleen Sweeney.
Print this story | Email this story
|
