Michigan State Police removes tens of thousands from sex offender registry after court order

Filed 1h ago · Via Michigan Advance · The Buffoon Desk

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Kevin MacLeod · incompetech.com · CC BY 4.0

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The Michigan Supreme Court ruled that the state's 2021 amendments to its Sex Offender Registration Act could not retroactively extend registration requirements to people who committed crimes before July 1, 2011, calling it unconstitutional ex post facto punishment. Michigan State Police, which maintains the registry, says it is complying with the order even though it didn't write the law.

At the time of the ruling, roughly 43,000 offenders were registered; by Friday, more than 20,000 had been removed, and the ACLU of Michigan has long argued the registry costs taxpayers millions with no clear public safety benefit.

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State police made clear, more than once, that this mess belongs to the Legislature, not them, and that is a fair thing to say when your job is just keeping the list current. Forty three thousand names dropping to fourteen thousand in a matter of days tells you how far a law can drift past what the Constitution actually allows before somebody finally checks the math.

Source: Read the original at Michigan Advance → Scored: Funky Boxstep · Kevin MacLeod · CC BY 4.0

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