Laws Evolve To Protect

In State v. Bodyke, 126 Ohio St.3d 266, 2010-Ohio-2424, 993 N.E.2d 753 (2010), the Ohio Supreme Court said that the enhanced registration, reporting, and notification obligations of Ohio's Adam Walsh Act violated the separation of powers when applied to those who had previously been classified under our Megan's law because the original classifications and requirements were imposed by the trial courts at sentencing and the Legislature could not (as it did) order the Executive (the Attorney General) to modify what the Judiciary had done.  Later decisions by the Court have resolved some remaining ambiguities in defendants' favor and found that retroactive application of the law violates our state constitution's retroactivity clause - which is broader than the Ex Post Facto Clause, though sometimes not as deep.

Please contact Lindsey Erickson or Dionne  Scherff with Erickson Scherff, LLC at www.ericksonscherff.com to see if the ruling in State v. Bodyke might positively affect your registration requirements.