Satellite-Based Monitoring Is Unconstitutional for All Unsupervised Recidivists

The Supreme Court of North Carolina held in State v. Grady, ___ N.C. ___ (2019), that satellite-based monitoring (SBM) of sex offenders is unconstitutional as applied to any unsupervised person who was ordered to enroll in SBM solely because he or she is a recidivist. By unsupervised, the court meant a person not on probation, parole, or post-release supervision. Today’s post takes a closer look at the Grady decision and what it may mean for North Carolina’s SBM program going forward. We’ve been writing about Grady on this blog since 2015. Let me see if I can bring you up to speed in one paragraph. Torrey Grady was convicted of second-degree sexual offense in 1997 and indecent liberties with a child in 2006. At a 2013 bring-back hearing, he was ordered to enroll in SBM for life, which is statutorily mandatory for a recidivist. G.S. 14-208.40(a)(1). North Carolina’s courts rejected his argument that SBM is an unconstitutional search, concluding that Fourth Amendment precedent related to GPS technology didn’t apply to a civil regime like SBM. State v. Grady, 233 N.C. App. 788 (2014). The Supreme Court of the United States vacated those decisions, noting that civil regimes, too, can include searches within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment. The Court remanded the case to North Carolina for a determination of whether SBM is a reasonable search. Grady v. North Carolina, 135 S. Ct. 1368 (2015). On remand, the trial court concluded that SBM was reasonable and therefore constitutional. A divided court [...]