08/15/2008
ELYRIA — County prosecutors are appealing a judge’s ruling that parts of a new state sex offender law are unconstitutional.
Defense attorneys plan to do the same on the parts of the controversial law that visiting Judge William Coyne ruled passed constitutional muster.
More than 350 of Lorain County’s registered sex offenders have challenged the new law — known as Adam’s Law for Adam Walsh, a 6-year-old Florida boy kidnapped and murdered in 1981— saying the demands it places on them are unfair.
- Meanwhile, tax payer dollars are going down the drain fighting these unconstitutional laws.
The law increases the number of years that sex offenders have to report to the sheriff of the county they live in. In some cases, offenders now have to report every 90 days for the rest of their lives. It also bars them from living near schools and day care centers.
- And adding retroactive punishment (ex post facto) to a sex offenders sentence, which is a contract, violates the US and state constitutions.
When it went into effect earlier this year, the law was applied retroactively, meaning every registered sex offender in the state was reclassified, even those convicted and sentenced before the law went into effect. Courts around the state are now grappling with the constitutional questions.
In Lorain County, Coyne found that reclassifying offenders retroactively was constitutional. But he also found that forcing people to move out of homes they owned because a day care center opened up the street wasn’t constitutional.
- If this idiot knew the constitution, and was upholding it, like he took an oath to do, then he would've found the laws unconstitutional, period! It's all written in the constitution, to prevent abuse of power, just like they are doing, and President Bush does on a daily basis.
Coyne also found that it was unfair to indigent sex offenders not to be given court-appointed attorneys to help them challenge their reclassifications.
Assistant Lorain County Prosecutor George Koury said the law makes challenging the reclassifications a civil matter, not criminal, and the state isn’t responsible for footing the bill for civil cases.
Koury also said prosecutors want to make certain that Coyne’s decision complies with an Ohio Supreme Court decision from earlier this year that said the residency restrictions can be applied retroactively in certain cases and going forward.
Laura Perkovic, the defense attorney representing the four sex offenders whose cases Coyne ruled in, said that forcing people to move out of their homes because of someone else’s actions — such as a school or day care being built nearby — has constitutional problems.
- Yeah, the people who want to open the school or day care, should check the registry, and if a sex offender lives near by, then they should NOT be able to build there, forcing the offender out of their home, and putting children in potential danger. The laws have to work both ways!
She also said that retroactively reclassifying sex offenders adds penalties for crimes that often occurred years ago.
- And all without due process of law, thanks to Bush, and violating the constitution at the same time. If this document means nothing, then why have it? And if we do not have it, then we are a fascist country!
“It’s an additional burden and an additional punishment,” she said.
Koury said that with the law being challenged all over the state, it’s only a matter of time before one of those challenges reaches the Ohio Supreme Court, which will ultimately decide what’s constitutional and what’s not.
“Until they make a decision, we’re going to continue to go through this process,” he said.
- Meanwhile, the tax payers dollars are going down the drain, lawyers are getting rich, sex offenders are becoming homeless and broke, being forced into exile. That sounds like a fascist country to me!
Coyne has stayed enforcement of Adam’s Law in Lorain County while the cases wind their way through the legal system.
Contact Brad Dicken at 329-7147 or bdicken@chroniclet.com.
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