Supreme Court to Take Up Sex Offender Web Postings

Taking up an appeal from state prosecutors, the Supreme Court said it would decide whether officials can put on the Internet the names, addresses and photos of sex offenders who have been released from prison.

All 50 states require these offenders to register with the police, and most states take steps to alert the community of their presence. At least 28 states put this information on the Internet.

California Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer said the state was considering legislation that allows Californians with a valid driver’s license to check information on sex offenders who reside in their county.

The case to be heard before the high court comes from Alaska. It concerns whether states can post information about sex offenders whose crimes predated the adoption of the law that permitted posting such information.

In 1994, Alaska adopted its Sex Offender Registration Act. Last year, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, in an opinion by Judge Stephen Reinhart in Los Angeles, said it cannot be applied to offenders whose crimes took place before 1994.

To do so would impose an after-the-fact punishment and therefore, violate the Constitution’s ban on “ex post facto” laws.

But Alaska prosecutors, joined by Lockyer and the attorneys general from 22 other states, urged the high court to uphold these laws and rule that they do not impose true punishment on offenders who have been released.

“The public safety interest is in knowing who is in your neighborhood, who poses a danger to you or someone in your family,” said California Deputy Atty. Gen. Janet Neeley.

Men identified as John Doe I and John Doe II, along with one man’s wife, challenged Alaska’s retroactive law as unconstitutional punishment after the fact. Their attorney, Verne E. Rupright, told the appellate court that the registry was “nothing more than a penal measure dressed in civil clothing.”

The case is Otte vs. Doe, 01-729, and will be heard in the fall.