Charged but not convicted as predator

The Minnesota Supreme Court reversed an appellate ruling that would have let the state's Bureau of Criminal Apprehension register a man as a predatory offender despite his acquittal on the underlying kidnapping charge. The court held that requiring registration based on a charge alone, without conviction, violates due process rights.

The ruling reins in a bureau practice that had allowed registration to proceed even after a not-guilty verdict, restoring the more basic expectation that being charged and being convicted are not interchangeable for legal purposes.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.