State v. Griffin and the Effectiveness of Satellite-Based Monitoring

The court of appeals issued a new decision on satellite-based monitoring (SBM) of sex offenders this week. It gives further guidance on what the State will need to show to establish that SBM is a reasonable search under the Fourth Amendment in light of Grady v. North Carolina. The case is State v. Griffin. In Griffin, a defendant convicted of first-degree sexual offense in 2004 was called to court in 2016 (after his release from prison) for an SBM determination hearing (a “bring-back” hearing). By then, the Supreme Court had decided Grady v. North Carolina and the court of appeals had decided State v. Blue and State v. Morris (discussed here). It was therefore clear at that point that the State would need to make a showing (considering the totality of the circumstances, including the nature and purpose of the search and the extent to which it intrudes upon reasonable privacy expectations) that SBM was reasonable in order for the court to impose it. The State tried to do that, presenting information about the defendant’s history in prison and on post-release supervision, the victim’s youth, and the technical capabilities of the tracking device. Applying G.S. 14-208.40B, the court ordered SBM for 30 years. As to the Grady issue, the court concluded that the need to protect the public outweighed the “de minimis” intrusion upon the defendant’s Fourth Amendment rights. The defendant argued on appeal that SBM violated his Fourth Amendment rights in light of the criteria set out in State v. [...]