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9th Circuit Holds that SORNA Prosecution Violates Ex Post Facto Clause (for Juveniles)

By Corey Rayburnyung

Thanks to Sentencing Law & Policy, we see that the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that SORNA's retroactive registration requirement violates the Ex Post Facto clause when applied to juvenile offenders. You may read the unanimous panel opinion here. Eugene Volokh has more. From the opinion:We must decide as a matter of first impression ? in our court and in any other circuit court ? whether the retroactive application of SORNA?s provision covering individuals who were adjudicated juvenile delinquents because of the commission of certain sex offenses before SORNA?s passage violates the Ex Post Facto Clause of the United States Constitution. In light of the pervasive and severe new and additional disadvantages that result from the mandatory registration of former juvenile offenders and from the requirement that such former offenders report in person to law enforcement authorities every 90 days for 25 years, and in light of the confidentiality that has historically attached to juvenile proceedings, we conclude that the retroactive application of SORNA?s provisions to former juvenile offenders is punitive and, therefore, unconstitutional...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sex Crimes on September 11, 2009 (boomark / email).