LANSING, Mich. (WLKI)- The Michigan Supreme Court has ruled that the state cannot enforce its current sex offender registry requirements against people whose registrable offenses occurred before July 1, 2011.
The unanimous decision in People v. Eddie Lee Smith found that applying newer registration requirements to those individuals amounts to unconstitutional punishment after the fact.
Michigan's Sex Offenders Registration Act was originally enacted in the 1990s and was revised in 2011 and again in 2021. The state Supreme Court previously found the 2011 version could not be applied retroactively to people whose offenses occurred before the law took effect.
The court later determined that the current 2021 version of the law functions as criminal punishment because of requirements including lifetime registration, in-person reporting and public online listings.
The new ruling applies only to people whose registrable offenses occurred before July 1, 2011. People whose offenses occurred on or after that date remain subject to the current law.
The decision does not automatically remove affected people from the registry. It remains unclear whether registrants will need to seek relief individually through the courts or whether the state will take broader action.
According to News 10 Lansing.