The number of people on Pennsylvania’s online sex offender registry could drop as the result of a July ruling by the state Supreme Court.

 

Earlier this summer, the Court ruled that 2012 changes to the registry — intended to expand and strengthen reporting rules under the state’s Megan’s Law — could not be applied retroactively. The ruling emerged from the case of a Cumberland County man convicted of two counts of indecent assault of a 12-year-old girl in 2007.

 

Under previous law, established in 2007, offenders had to register and report for either 10 years or life. In 2012, the federal Adam Walsh Act, or Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA), created three tiers: 15 years, 25 years or life.

 

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that a sentence ordering Jose M. Muniz to register as a sex offender for life violated both the Pennsylvania and U.S. constitutions. The July decision reversed the Superior Court’s ruling and vacated his requirement to register under SORNA.

 

Muniz was convicted in 2007 of molesting a 12-year-old girl. He was scheduled for sentencing in May of 2007 but fled before that happened. Captured and re-arrested in October 2014, Muniz claimed the lifetime punishment was unconstitutional because the sex offender laws were different when he was initially convicted.

 

“The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled as a matter of federal constitutional law that the Legislature could not retroactively increase the defendant’s registration period because Megan’s Law is punitive in nature,” Snyder County (Pa.) District Attorney Michael Piecuch said. “In effect, the court said that the rules that applied at the time of the conviction were locked in, and thus Muniz’s registration obligations under Megan’s Law expired in February 2017. The ruling also means that if the legislature adds offenses to the Megan’s Law list, the requirements only apply going forward with new convictions.

 

“When you add this case with the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s decision in 2014 to exempt juveniles from any lifetime Megan’s Law requirements, these decisions will certainly reduce the numbers of sex offenders subject to Megan’s Law,” Piecuch said.

 

Megan’s Law became the national registry for sex offenders following the 1994 rape and murder of 7-year-old Megan Kanka in New Jersey. 

 

In Pennsylvania, the database is operated and overseen by the Pennsylvania State Police. Prior to entering the searchable database — capable of searching by county, town name, zip code — an individual must accept a disclaimer that the information will not be used to “threaten, intimidate, or harass the registrant or their family.”

 

When convicted of sexual offenses of varying degrees, offenders are required to register in one of three tiers: Tier I offenders are those who have been convicted of less serious sexual crimes. Tier III offenders are those convicted of the most serious violations, including rape.

 

A rape conviction would lead to “an automatic Tier III offense requiring lifetime registration four times per year,” said Ryan Tarkowski, communications director at the Pennsylvania State Police said. 

Megan’s Law registrants are required to update where they work and where they live, Tarkowski said. There are no requirements in Pennsylvania on how far an individual on Megan’s Law must live in regard to churches or schools, Tarkowski said.  

 

According to the 2012 revision, Tier I offenders are required to report annually to the state police, Tier II offenders are required to appear four times a year and Tier III offenders are watched monthly by law enforcement. In 2016, Pennsylvania had 20,488 registered sex offenders.

 

 

Union County (Pa.) District Attorney Pete Johnson said the new law should be respected.

 

“The Supreme Court ruling is our highest court ruling,” Johnson said. “We have to follow it. The people who got pulled into the registration under those old circumstances are going to be off the registry itself.”

 

Johnson said some individuals who had to register for 10 years would have been forced onto the lifetime list, but the new law will now take them off the list.

 

“The Supreme Court said you are going backwards if you apply that and that can’t be done,” Johnson said. “They ruled that was punishing people without due process.”