Legal Update – What’s going on with the Ex-Post-Facto Suit?
Earlier this year, thanks to the contributions of many of our members, we hit our fundraising goal to initiate a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the sex offender registration requirements on ex-post-facto grounds.
Many have reached out to FAC or posted comments asking about the status of this ex-post-facto suit, so we wanted to provide a quick update in order to keep everyone in the loop and assure our members that things are still moving forward.
A lawsuit of this magnitude requires a lot of planning and research before it can be filed. We first need to identify and research the strongest issues, find the right plaintiffs and retain the best experts before a case can even be filed. The process easily takes months.
Deciding which claims to set forth requires an analysis of how the laws in Florida are similar to (or different from) the laws in other states that have been successful (or unsuccessful) in similar claims. Finding the right plaintiffs is not just a matter of picking people who want to be plaintiffs, but those who will present well and be articulate, can be available for hearings or depositions, are willing to be named in case they can’t proceed anonymously. This not only involves an evaluation of these individuals’ representations, but examining their underlying case. Similar evaluations have to go into experts before they are retained.
While all this is going on, cases in other jurisdictions impact the timing of our case. In December 2016, a petition for Writ of Certiorari was filed in Doe v. Snyder (the 6th Circuit case finding the registry punishment and a violation of ex post facto) and the Supreme Court of the United States has still not decided whether it will be heard. If it’s heard, some of the issues we could bring in our case would be redundant – because the same issues might be decided by a court that would have superior authority. With so many potential points to challenge, we need to ensure our resources are not misspent.
As much as time does not feel like it’s on our side as we are being punished, when it comes to the courts and these issues, it seems time is on our side, as many of the recent cases have provided relief and useful precedent.
Please be assured that things are moving in the background. Much of what is going on is the important stuff – preparation and planning. Much of what is going on also can’t be disclosed publicly so as not to prepare the opposition.
i just thought about something if the cities and states that ban so’s from living in certain places are somehow breaking the federal fair housing law that prohibits blanket preventing people with convections from living or renting certain homes/hotels/etc….
which law are you referring to?
Fair Housing Act
https://www.hud.gov/sites/documents/HUD_OGCGUIDAPPFHASTANDCR.PDF
Thanks!
Thank you Crooked Rick Scott Sucks !!!!
But someplace in there, in the extra fine print, it will say “EXCEPT Sex Offenders”
Actually @Sean
It does not. I have obtained a Rental that recognized that law upfront when I advised them of my conviction. These are the types of tools that one must arm themselves with when addressing the toughest issue for SO’s to reintegrate into Society with.
Anon for now
Anon,
That’s my point, can this federal law be used against the states/counties and cities that prevent people from living in certain places/locations
there is always a way to spin a law 🙂
Laws are so convoluted in this country that it seems as though the Constitution no longer matters. It’s the old ‘golden rule’…who ever has the gold…power…rules. Our system allows politicians to ignore the Constitution for so long that after a while we forget what the violation was to begin with and the violation becomes ‘the law of the land’. It takes forever and piles of money to get it back on a constitutional track.
Me to the judge;
“I am pleading guilty to a crime I did not commit. The prosecution has told me that I cannot just get another attorney just because my public pretender didnt look at my case for 9 months”.
Above is Court transcripts Feb 22, 1995.
At the date of my sentencing, the law read “Upon sentencing, I was to be informed that I was labeled a sex offender.” I was never informed.
I was hauled into court 18 months later and told I was to be labeled a “sexually violent predator”. The judge wasnt happy with that decision, but said “I dont run the courtroom, the prosecution does”. WHAT?????
(When I went to the court reporters office to get the court transcripts; they were GONE–at all three places they were stored– just the order that now labeled me as a predator)
The only restrictions that were put upon me at sentencing were…
1. NO contact with ex-wife or kids.
2. Submit DNA sample.
3. Attend MDSO counseling. (To which the judge pulled me from less than 6 months into counseling)
These false allegations were from my ex-wife. after she learned that I inherited $250,000 from my late mothers estate. She wanted the house, the money and me out of her life.
At the end of the divorce hearing, she turned to her attorney and said, IN OPEN COURT…
“Yea, I set the son of a bitch up— and took him for every thing he got”
The judge did nothing.
BRO, SOUNDS ALL TOO FAMILIAR! My case also involved my ex only her mother was the mastermind behind it and she was the puppet
To FAC,
The 3 month cop that comes by and “checks on me” told me that all I have to register for my Internet Identifiers is just my e-mail address (I only have one).
YET, on Page 4 of 6 (Notice of sex pred and offender obligations) it states “ALL electronic mail, chat, instant messenger, social networking, ect…….”
The detective tells me that I only have to list one. I am looking at what the “LAW” says…ALL>>>!!
So I have a list of every site that I communicate with someone else on; from chat windows on AT&T, to You Tube, to the permitting Department at City Hall.
I have called FDLE and they said give the list to the Deputy and he has to input it into the computer.
I am thinking if he doesnt, I will get jammed up for not filing according to LAW.
I have told FDLE that if he doesnt file ALL–according to law, I am going to be filing a Internal Affairs complaint with BSO for this cop not properly updating my files. They agreed.
FDLE also said for me to get the cop to sign that paper acknowledging that he received that updated info. (HA-HA Fat chance of him signing that)
The Detective was not telling you the truth.
i mean in their eyes were scum and they can give a rats ass to help us. i just got stitched up because of a sailboat the wife and I had at Patrick Air force base in Melbourne Fl, for 12yrs (both of us are retired vets) and I had been faithfully registering it as a temp address the entire time then all of a sudden in 2017 I was arrested for failure to register a temp address with DMV I am currently serving 2 yrs house arrest and 3 yrs probation The whole lot of us at the marina on that base believe it was a set up now I have another felony mark on my record and lost my rights that were restored
what is/will be included in this all?
what about the people in 1998/1999 that were told it was a 5-year registration then it went to 10 then 15 then 25/life
also any updates on when this will be filled?
within a month
Thanks for the reply but just also
will the people in 1998/1999 that were told it was a 5-year registration then it went to 10 then 15 then 25/life or just up until 1997?
Thanks
PS. also i just ran across this story
http://www.jurist.org/paperchase/2018/06/un-special-rapporteur-accuses-us-of-criminalizing-being-poor.php
Glory to God, thank you Jesus for FAC
My probation for a sex offense was to end on 5 August 2010. In 2009 I was given 20 years of additional probation for the ‘criminal act’ of saying “Good Morning” on a public sidewalk in my neighborhood in broad daylight to my neighbor’s son with both his and his parents approval; but not to the approval of a neighborhood ‘paranoid’ or to the ‘hang em high’ probation ‘paranoids’. Many of the restrictions in place today for sex offenses were not in place in 2009 yet ‘my good morning’ puts me under the ‘umbrella’ of these new restrictions…ex post facto? By the way, the victim of my sex offenses and I made up years ago…but Florida still ‘feels offended’.
Man that’s horrible! =( I’m here in Virginia and my federal judge just let me off probation a few months early, so I can now actually enjoy a summer with my family. We were blessed! Also a Navy vet currently taking advantage of my GI Bill, lord knows that monthly payment helps us out. Hope you don’t have to wait until the end, but there will be an end!
Chris, in 2014 I went to Virginia Beach for an early release from probation hearing. I had asked Florida for a recommendation for early release and the response I received was that Florida does not make recommendations one way or the other. I had stacks of letters that were presented to the judge from Florida residents recommending my release. But it just so happened that that very morning Florida probation contacted the prosecutor’s office and recommended against release…so much for their honesty. Florida even said that my daughter did not want me released. What a shocker! Later on I found out that she made no such request and that she wasn’t even notified of the hearing…Florida lied…surprise! The judge asked the Virginia Beach probation officer who is monitoring my case there…the offense was in Virginia Beach…what she recommended. She said she could not make a recommendation because she had been requesting reports on my performance and Florida had failed to respond. Without anything positive from Florida the judge said he could not release me. I am currently putting together another request for release and this time I will be represented by both a Florida and Virginia Beach lawyer. My Florida lawyer is prepared to let the Virginia Beach judge know just how crooked Florida is. Performance and corrected action mean nothing in Florida. It all comes down to $$$$.
Chris, I have been told that if I went back to Virginia I would probably be off of probation fairly shortly, however, I did not serve my country for 29 years so I could let some ‘tinhorn’ politician run me out of my retirement home. I moved to Florida 15 years ago to help out my parents. My dad was very ill. I had my retirement home built here and have made many friends. When I go back to Virginia Beach…to put flowers on my wife’s grave…I realize that Virginia Beach is not the same place I left all those years ago. My home is Florida. My children have moved to Florida. My activities center around my Florida home. One of my goals is to be involved in waking Florida up to the failures the legislators have had in putting in place their draconian SO laws. One day Florida will be a state where those who have had failures in their lives…and all have, including the legislators…will find forgiveness and restoration. I love my home here and look forward to better days.
I was convicted in 1999 of an offense involving consensual sexual activity that occurred in August 1997 involving my 16 (within a few days of turning 17) year-old cousin. I was 25 at the time of the offense; had I been a little more than a year younger, the conduct would not have been illegal under what was then a new law, F.S. 794.05(1).
I pled guilty to the charges with the clear understanding that, as the law was written at the time, I would be required to register as sex offender for 10 years from the end of my probation. The assistant state attorney actually mentioned this to the (then 19 year-old) victim’s mother in open court during my sentencing hearing. If the law in effect at the time of my offense were still in force — or if the current version of the law is ever struck down on ex post facto grounds — my “duty” to register would have expired (or hopefully will expire with a successful ex post facto challenge) on December 16, 2020.
I am now 46 years old, have a successful career, own a home and am a law-abiding citizen. Since my probation ended in 2010, I have had one traffic ticket for failing to yield the right of way and one parking ticket for an expired meter. I’d hazard a guess that this is better than the driving record of the average South Floridian.
Yet every year, with each new Florida legislative session, I am punished anew for nonviolent, consensual conduct from more than 20 years ago that is not even illegal in the majority of states. Assuming that the current law does not change or is not struck down, I will be eligible to petition the court for removal of the requirement to register as a sex offender in December 2035, when I will be 64 years old, or almost 40 years after the underlying offense.
RM – don’t count on or wait for 2035. We have an Ex Post Facto challenge coming.
I would just like to say, no matter what the outcome of the expost facto challenge is Thank you to everyone at F. A. C. for everything you do.
I second that
AMEN!
yes, you guys are awesome !
I was tried and convicted in Norfolk Va, would this apply to me as well , or just those sentences in Florida?
People living in FL
I was convicted in Virginia Beach. I expect that the outcome of the ex post facto challenge will be based on date of conviction and not the location. This is my opinion and not a legal opinion.