United States National Sex Offenders Public Registry
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Dru Sjodin Dru, dru, or DRU may refer to: People Real persons (surname) * (born 1987), French trampolinist * Joanne Dru (1922–1996), American actress Real persons (forename) * Andrew Dru Castro (born 1976), American Grammy Award-winning recording engin ...
National Sex Offender Public Registry is a cooperative effort between
U.S. The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...
state agencies that host public
sex offender A sex offender (sexual offender, sex abuser, or sexual abuser) is a person who has committed a sex crime. What constitutes a sex crime differs by culture and legal jurisdiction. The majority of convicted sex offenders have convictions for crime ...
registries and the U.S. federal government. The registry is coordinated by the
United States Department of Justice The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a federal executive department of the United States government tasked with the enforcement of federal law and administration of justice in the United State ...
and operates a web site search tool allowing a user to submit a single query to obtain information about sex offenders throughout the United States.


Purpose

State sex-offender registration and notification programs are designed, in general, to include information about offenders who have been convicted of a "criminal offense against a victim who is a minor" or a "sexually violent offense," as specified in the
Jacob Wetterling Crimes Against Children and Sexually Violent Offender Registration Act {{Sex offender registries in the United States The Jacob Wetterling Crimes Against Children and Sexually Violent Offender Registration Act, colloquially known as the Wetterling Act, is a United States law that requires states to implement a reg ...
("the Wetterling Act") – more specifically, information about persons convicted of offenses involving sexual molestation or sexual exploitation of children, and persons convicted of rape and rape-like offenses (regardless of the age of the victim), respectively. Not all state web sites provide for public disclosure of information about all sex-offenders who reside, work, or attend school in the state. For example, one state may limit public disclosure over its web site of information concerning offenders who have been determined to be high-risk, while another state may provide for wider disclosure of offender information but make no representation as to risk level of specific offenders. Members of the public may be able to obtain certain types of information about specific offenders who reside, work, or attend school in the state and have been convicted of one or more of the types of offenses specified below, depending on the specific parameters of a given State's public notification program.


Search capabilities

The National Sex Offender Public Registry website supports search by: *Name *ZIP Code *County (if provided by state) *City/Town (if provided by state) *State (one or multiple) *National The results are limited to what each individual state may provide. Information is hosted by each state, not by the federal government.


Constitutionality


U.S. Supreme Court rulings

In two cases docketed for argument on November 13, 2003, the sex offender registries of two states, Alaska and Connecticut, would face legal challenge. This was the first instance that the Supreme Court had to examine the implementation of sex offender registries in throughout the U.S. The ruling would let the states know how far they could go in informing citizens of perpetrators of sex crimes. The constitutionality of the registries was challenged in two ways:


''Ex post facto'' challenge

In '' Smith v. Doe'', 538 U.S. 84 (2003), the Supreme Court upheld
Alaska Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S., ...
's sex-offender registration
statute A statute is a formal written enactment of a legislative authority that governs the legal entities of a city, state, or country by way of consent. Typically, statutes command or prohibit something, or declare policy. Statutes are rules made by le ...
. Reasoning that sex offender registration deals with civil laws, not punishment, the Court ruled 6-3 that it is not an
unconstitutional Constitutionality is said to be the condition of acting in accordance with an applicable constitution; "Webster On Line" the status of a law, a procedure, or an act's accordance with the laws or set forth in the applicable constitution. When l ...
''ex post facto'' law. Justices
John Paul Stevens John Paul Stevens (April 20, 1920 – July 16, 2019) was an American lawyer and jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1975 to 2010. At the time of his retirement, he was the second-oldes ...
,
Ruth Bader Ginsburg Joan Ruth Bader Ginsburg ( ; ; March 15, 1933September 18, 2020) was an American lawyer and jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1993 until her death in 2020. She was nominated by President ...
, and
Stephen Breyer Stephen Gerald Breyer ( ; born August 15, 1938) is a retired American lawyer and jurist who served as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1994 until his retirement in 2022. He was nominated by President Bill Clinton, and repl ...
dissented. However, On July 25, 2008, Doe number two prevailed and the Alaska Supreme Court ruled that the Alaska Sex Offender Registration Act's registration violated the ex post facto clause of the state's constitution and ruled that the requirement does not apply to persons who committed their crimes before the act became effective on August 10, 1994.


Due process challenge

In ''
Connecticut Dept. of Public Safety v. Doe ''Connecticut Department of Public Safety v. Doe'', 538 U.S. 1 (2003), was a Supreme Court of the United States, United States Supreme Court case regarding the constitutionality of the Connecticut Sex offender registries in the United States, sex ...
'', 538 U.S. 1 (2003), the Court ruled that Connecticut's sex-offender registration statute did not violate the
procedural due process Procedural due process is a legal doctrine in the United States that requires government officials to follow fair procedures before depriving a person of life, liberty, or property. When the government seeks to deprive a person of one of those in ...
of those to whom it applied, although the Court "expresses no opinion as to whether the State's law violates
substantive due process Substantive due process is a principle in United States constitutional law that allows courts to establish and protect certain fundamental rights from government interference, even if only procedural protections are present or the rights are unen ...
principles." Update: Reynolds V. United States Certiorari to the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit No. 10–6549. Argued October 3, 2011—Decided January 23, 2012 "The Act does not require pre-Act offenders to register before the Attorney General validly specifies that the Act's registration provisions apply to them."


State Court rulings


Hawaii

In ''State v. Bani'', 36 P.3d 1255 (Haw. 2001), the
Hawaii State Supreme Court The Supreme Court of Hawaii is the highest court of the State of Hawaii in the United States. Its decisions are binding on all other courts of the Hawaii State Judiciary. The principal purpose of the Supreme Court is to review the decisions of ...
held that Hawaii's sex offender registration statute violated the due process clause of the
Constitution of Hawaii The Constitution of the State of Hawaii ( haw, Kumukānāwai o Hawaiʻi) refers to various legal documents throughout the history of the Hawaiian Islands that defined the fundamental principles of authority and governance within its sphere of juri ...
, ruling that it deprived potential registrants "of a protected
liberty Liberty is the ability to do as one pleases, or a right or immunity enjoyed by prescription or by grant (i.e. privilege). It is a synonym for the word freedom. In modern politics, liberty is understood as the state of being free within society fr ...
interest without due process of law." The Court reasoned that the sex offender law authorized "public notification of (the potential registrant's) status as a convicted sex offender without notice, an opportunity to be heard, or any preliminary determination of whether and to what extent (he) actually represents a danger to society."


Alaska

After losing the constitutional challenge in the US Supreme Court in 2002 one of the two Doe's in the case committed suicide. The other Doe began a new challenge in the state courts. Per the ''ALASKA DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SAFETY '' website: On July 25, 2008, Doe number two prevailed and the Alaska Supreme Court ruled that the Alaska Sex Offender Registration Act's registration violated the ex post facto clause of the state's constitution and ruled that the requirement does not apply to persons who committed their crimes before the act became effective on August 10, 1994.


Maryland

In March 2013 Maryland Court of Appeals (Highest court of Maryland) decision Doe v. DPSCS declared that Maryland's existing registry laws are punitive in effect, and therefore could not constitutionally be applied retroactively to persons whose crimes pre-dated registration. RSOL's Maryland chapter, FAIR (Families Advocating Intelligent Registries) was part of the
Amicus Curiae An ''amicus curiae'' (; ) is an individual or organization who is not a party to a legal case, but who is permitted to assist a court by offering information, expertise, or insight that has a bearing on the issues in the case. The decision on ...
, testifying for the de facto punitive effects of Maryland sex offender law cited in the decision. This decision was further solidified in 2014 with the "Doe 2" decision. The full impact of these decisions in Maryland is still being effected.


Missouri

Many successful challenges to sex offender registration laws in the
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
have been in Missouri because of a unique provision in the
Missouri Constitution The Missouri Constitution is the state constitution of the U.S. State of Missouri. It is the supreme law formulating the law and government of Missouri, subject only to the federal Constitution, and the people. The fourth and current Missouri C ...
(Article I, Section 13) prohibiting laws "retrospective in
heir Inheritance is the practice of receiving private property, titles, debts, entitlements, privileges, rights, and obligations upon the death of an individual. The rules of inheritance differ among societies and have changed over time. Officiall ...
operation." In ''Doe v. Phillips,'' 194 S.W.3d 837 (Mo. banc 2006), the
Supreme Court of Missouri The Supreme Court of Missouri is the highest court in the state of Missouri. It was established in 1820 and is located at 207 West High Street in Jefferson City, Missouri. Missouri voters have approved changes in the state's constitution to give ...
held that the Missouri Constitution did not allow the state to place anyone on the registry who had been
convicted In law, a conviction is the verdict reached by a court of law finding a defendant guilty of a crime. The opposite of a conviction is an acquittal (that is, "not guilty"). In Scotland, there can also be a verdict of "not proven", which is consid ...
or
pleaded guilty In legal terms, a plea is simply an answer to a claim made by someone in a criminal case under common law using the adversarial system. Colloquially, a plea has come to mean the assertion by a defendant at arraignment, or otherwise in response ...
to a registrable offense before the sex offender registration law went into effect on January 1, 1995.''Doe v. Phillips'', 194 S.W.3d 837 (Mo. banc 2006)
/ref> and remanded the case for further consideration in light of that holding. On remand, the Jackson County Circuit Court entered an
injunction An injunction is a legal and equitable remedy in the form of a special court order that compels a party to do or refrain from specific acts. ("The court of appeals ... has exclusive jurisdiction to enjoin, set aside, suspend (in whole or in pa ...
ordering that the applicable individuals be removed from the published sex offender list.''Doe v. Keathley'', Case No. WD68066 (Mo. App. slip op. Apr. 1, 2008)
/ref> Defendant Colonel James Keathley appealed that order to the
Missouri Court of Appeals The Missouri Court of Appeals is the intermediate appellate court for the state of Missouri. The court handles most of the appeals from the Missouri Circuit Courts. The court is divided into three geographic districts: Eastern (based in St. ...
in
Kansas City The Kansas City metropolitan area is a bi-state metropolitan area anchored by Kansas City, Missouri. Its 14 counties straddle the border between the U.S. states of Missouri (9 counties) and Kansas (5 counties). With and a population of more ...
, which affirmed the injunction on April 1, 2008. Keathley filed an appeal with the Supreme Court of Missouri. In response to these rulings, in 2007, several
Missouri state Senators Missouri is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee): Iowa to the north, Illinois, Kentucky and Tennessee to the east, Arkansas to th ...
proposed an amendment to the Missouri Constitution that would exempt sex offender registration laws from bar on retrospective civil laws. The proposed amendment passed the State Senate unanimously but was not passed by the
Missouri House of Representatives The Missouri House of Representatives is the lower chamber of the Missouri General Assembly. It has 163 members, representing districts with an average size of 37,000 residents. House members are elected for two-year terms during general elections ...
before the end of the 2007
legislative session A legislative session is the period of time in which a legislature, in both parliamentary and presidential systems, is convened for purpose of lawmaking, usually being one of two or more smaller divisions of the entire time between two elections. ...
. The same constitutional amendment was proposed in and passed by the Missouri Senate again in 2008, but also was not passed by the House of Representatives by the end of that year's legislative session. As a result, the decisions of the Missouri courts prohibiting the retrospective application of sex offender laws remained intact. The Missouri Supreme Court ruled on Keathley's appeal (''Doe v. Phillips'' now styled ''Doe v. Keathley'') on June 16, 2009. The Court held that the Missouri Constitution's provision prohibiting laws retrospective in operation no longer exempts individuals from registration if they are subject to the independent Federal obligation created under the Sexual Offenders Registration and Notification Act (SORNA), 42 U.S.C. § 16913. As a result, many offenders who were previously exempt under the Court's 2006 holding in ''Doe v. Phillips'' were once again required to register. On January 12, 2010, Cole County Circuit Judge Richard Callahan ruled that individuals who plead guilty to a sex offense are not required to register under Federal Law and thus are not required to register in Missouri if the date of their plea was prior to the passage of the Missouri registration law. Missouri also has a number of laws that restrict the activities of persons required to register as sex offenders, several of which have also been challenged as being retrospective in their operation. On February 19, 2008, the Supreme Court of Missouri held that a law prohibiting registered sex offenders from residing within 1,000 feet of a school was retrospective in operation as applied to registered sex offenders who had resided at a location within such a distance prior to the enactment of the law. Another exception to the school-residence proximity requirement was handed down by the Court on January 12, 2010 in ''F.R. v. St. Charles County Sheriff's Department''. In this case, F.R. was convicted prior to the enactment of the law and the Court held that, as such, he was not required to abide by the restriction. Consolidated with ''F.R.'' was ''State of Missouri v. Raynor'', in which the Court found that Charles A. Raynor was not required to comply with R.S.Mo. § 589.426, a law restricting the activities of registered sex offenders on Halloween.''State of Missouri v. Charles A. Raynor'', No. SC90164
/ref> In both ''F.R.'' and ''Raynor'', the ruling applies only to the named party.


See also

*
Murder of Dru Sjodin Dru Katrina Sjodin (September 26, 1981 – November 22, 2003) was an American woman who was abducted from the Columbia Mall parking lot in Grand Forks, North Dakota, by Alfonso Rodriguez Jr., on November 22, 2003. Her disappearance and murder ...


References

{{Reflist


External links


National Sex Offender Public Registry
Sex offender registration Sex offender registries in the United States