Court: Calif. Sex Predator Law Needs More Hearings

In essence, a non decision on the residency portion of Jessica's law. With that said, I do see a problem, the court said, "because the law NOW SAYS that persons convicted of certain crimes will be on LifeTime probation when released," and each of the Plaintiffs' crimes fell into these -certain crimes category- then the residency law was not applied retroactively, instead it is being applied prospectively.

As best as I can see, it appears, none of these Plaintiffs attacked the "LifeTime Probation" portion, hence the court was not stopped from their prospective application decision. However, the court did REMAND each Plaintiff's case for further hearings, where they may be able to attack the "LifeTime Probation" portion.

Normally a law is retroactive, if it is enacted AFTER the date of conviction, however, here the court seems to have substituted the "date of release" for the "date of conviction" in order to save the law. That seems to violate ex post facto clauses, but I'm just one opinion.

2-1-2010 California:

Calif. High Court Not Ready To Rule On Sexual Predator Law, Returns Cases To Lower Court

(AP) SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - The California Supreme Court on Monday ordered more investigation into whether the state's sexually violent predator law is constitutional.

On Monday, a 5-2 court ruled that separate inquiries must be conducted into the claims of four registered sex offenders who allege they can't find a place to live because vote-approved Jessica's Law prohibits them from residing within 2,000 feet of schools, parks and other places where children congregate

The law also requires parolees to live in the county of their last legal residence.

The four registered sex offenders whose claims were considered contended that such residency restrictions essentially bar them from living in densely populated areas. Most of San Francisco, for instance, is off limits because of the stay-away requirements.

The high court said it wasn't presented with enough evidence to support or refute those claims and sent each case back to a trial court for further hearings. The court said each case should be considered separately.

The court noted that there are 3,884 parolees subject to Jessica's Law, and 718 of them have declared themselves homeless because of their inability to comply with the restrictions.

Proposition 86, which established Jessica's Law, was passed by 70 percent of voters in 2006 and increased the punishment for committing sexually violent crimes.

Justice Carlos Moreno and Joyce Kennard dissented with the ruling, writing they felt that applying the law retroactively to offenders convicted before the law took effect was wrong.

On Thursday, the court also asked for more evidence to determine if it's constitutional to indefinitely incarcerate sex offenders found to be mentally disturbed in mental health facilities after they serve their prison terms.

The court said more hearings must be scheduled to determine if sexually violent predators can be punished differently than other mentally disturbed violent criminals, who can be held for defined terms after their prison sentences are served. ..Source..