Pennsylvania's Recently Enacted And Revised Sexual Registration and Notification Act "SORNA" Ruled "Unconstitutional" by Montgomery County Judge, According to Attorney John McMahon
NORRISTOWN, Pa., June 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --
The following is a statement from John I. McMahon, Jr., Esquire, of law firm McMahon, McMahon & Lentz:
MONTGOMERY COUNTY JUDGE WILLIAM R. CARPENTER ISSUED A STUNNING DECISION ON JUNE 22, 2018 THAT THE RETROACTIVE PROVISIONS OF THE RECENTLY ENACTED PENNSYLVANIA SEXUAL OFFENDER REGISTRATION AND NOTIFICATION ACT "SORNA" ARE PUNITIVE, SEVERABLE AND UNCONSTITUTIONAL.
Last Friday, June 22, 2018, Judge Carpenter granted our Motion to Terminate Sexual Offender Registration Requirements under the new, revised Pennsylvania Sexual Registration and Notification Act statute enacted on February 21, 2018, which we argued on behalf of our client, C.L., was punitive, retroactive and unconstitutional. Under the provisions of the most recently revised "SORNA" our client who was convicted of Sexual Assault and related offenses would have been subjected to a "lifetime" registration requirement with the Pennsylvania State Police. At the time our client was sentenced by Judge Carpenter in 1997 to serve a seven to twenty year sentence, his most serious offense carried a ten year sexual offender registration and notification requirement, under the then existing Megan's Law I. Megan's law I was later subject to significant revisions in Megan's Law 2 in 2000 and then Megan's Law 3 which expired in 2012, when the first "SORNA" replaced it. These revised Sexual Registration and Notification statutes broadly expanded the length of the registration and notification requirements for those previously convicted of most sexual offenses. Thereafter, in 2017, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court held in Commonwealth vs. Muniz that the Sexual Registration and Notification Act known as "SORNA" was unconstitutional, as it violated the ex post facto clauses of the Pennsylvania and United States Constitutions based on its retroactive and punitive registration and notification requirements for previously convicted offenders. The most recently further revised "SORNA" statute signed into law on February 21, 2018, was the Pennsylvania legislature's response to the sweeping Muniz decision. Judge Carpenter wholly agreed with our argument, that notwithstanding certain less onerous yearly registration provisions of the new "SORNA" and the opportunity for a lifetime registrant to petition to terminate the registration requirements after twenty five years, the longer, the retroactive registration requirements and other provisions were still punitive, severable and unconstitutional. Our client had NOT determined to be a sexually violent predator at the time of his 1997 sentencing. He had no prior record and he has had no further law enforcement contacts during the last twenty years. In conclusion, it appears likely that the "SORNA" related litigation will not end soon as thousands of previously convicted sexual offenders are greatly impacted by this unconstitutional Pennsylvania statute that has been repeatedly and unsuccessfully revised to try and pass Constitutional muster for over a decade.
John I. McMahon, Jr., Esquire (610-272-9502) website: McMahon4law.com
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