editorial
Sex registry changes
The Indiana and federal constitutions are clear – no ex post facto law shall ever be adopted. Like it or not, there are no exceptions for especially heinous crimes such as child molesting.
Last year, the Indiana Supreme Court ruled 5-0 that requiring someone to register as a sex offender for a crime committed before the sex offender registry requirement was created is an ex post facto law – one that makes an act committed before the law was adopted punishable as a crime.
The Allen County Sheriff’s Department, rightly, began removing from the local registry the names of people who committed sex crimes before the 1994 law was adopted. But the Indiana Department of Correction, which maintained a statewide registry, did not.
The department was taking advice from the attorney general’s office, which apparently took note of language in the court ruling that seemed to suggest it applied only to the convicted offender who filed the appeal.
Now, however, the attorney general’s office is rightly interpreting the ruling as Allen County has – that it applies to all those whose crimes occurred before 1994. The attorney general still is requiring offenders to seek a court order to be removed from the state registry.
As a result, courts are being inundated with requests to be removed – many filed by defendants pro se, without an attorney.
Few Hoosiers want to see the criminal justice system go out of its way to make life better for convicted sex offenders. However, the constitutional prohibition against ex post facto laws serves to protect citizens from a tyrannical government. Constitutions prohibit such laws because a basic premise of the law is that it establishes rules of behavior citizens must follow. Citizens cannot follow rules that are applied retroactively.
The sex offender registry has received some criticism, been enhanced by the legislature and last year was essentially altered by the court.
Such adjustments are not unusual for a far-reaching, relatively new law. More changes will likely occur.
The law that remains still requires people convicted for sex crimes committed since 1994 to register their addresses with authorities, who make that information available to the public. The law and its underlying purposes remain valid and valuable.