This courtesy of the AP:
Justices Say Sexual Predator Expansion Not Retroactive
Oct 27, 2005
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) - An offender who did not qualify as a sexual predator when sentenced cannot later receive that designation even if the criteria is changed to include his crime, the Florida Supreme Court ruled Thursday.
Sexual predators must register with the state for the rest of their lives and their whereabouts are public information.
Assistant Deputy Attorney Generalde at sentencing, not later, except for out-of-state convictions. John Richard Therrien did not meet the criteria when he was sentenced, she wrote.
Therrien was 16 in 1996 when charged with molesting a 9-year-old girl in Pensacola. Prosecuted as an adult, Therrien pleaded no contest in August 1997 to attempted sexual battery by a person under 18 on a child under 12 and lewd and lascivious assault.
The judge withheld adjudication and placed Therrien on probation for five years with a suspended jail sentence of 11 months, 15 days.
The Legislature subsequently changed sexual predator criteria to include attempted sexual battery by a person under 18 on a child under 12.
Three years after Therrien was sentenced, a judge granted the state’s request to designate him as sexual predator under the revised law. That decision was upheld by the 1st District Court of Appeal, but the Supreme Court quashed the appellate ruling.
The Florida Supreme Court in all it’s Omniscience decided that Therrien isn’t a sexual predator now for an act that he committed in 1996 because it wasn’t a law then? I’m confused. This, efficaciously shields Therrien from being identified as a predator. Communities have a right to know who is living in their neighborhoods and the possible consequences that may result.
The right decision in this case. As despicable as this act he commited is, the law at the time did not require him to register. Ex Post Facto protects him from this requirement and until such time as he commits and is convicted of a sexual predator crime. Like it or not (personally, I don’t) that is the law.