Petitions for Removal from the Sex Offender Registry: The Wetterling Finding -- Part I

A recent case from the court of appeals sheds some light on a frequently asked question about petitions for removal from the sex offender registry. The case, In re Hamilton, considered a trial court’s refusal to grant a petition because granting it would not comply with the federal Jacob Wetterling Act, as amended, and other related federal standards. It’s an issue I wrote about in this prior post, but given this new case (and the passage of three years) it’s time for an update. In Hamilton, the petitioner pled guilty to taking indecent liberties with a child in August 2001. He registered as a sex offender that same month. Almost exactly ten years later, in August 2011, the trial court heard his petition to terminate his registration. The trial judge denied the petition based solely on a finding that allowing Mr. Hamilton off the registry would not comply with applicable federal law. Mr. Hamilton made two arguments on appeal. The first, styled as an issue of “mootness,” was that his registration should have terminated automatically after ten years based on the law that existed when he was first placed on the registry. The registry used to work that way, the court of appeals noted, but the petition procedure put in place by the General Assembly in 2006 was made applicable to “persons for whom the period of registration would terminate on or after December 1, 2006.” S.L. 2006-247, sec. 10.(b). The change therefore included Mr. Hamilton, whose registration would have run [...]