John Doe XLVI v. Anderson
Annotate this CaseIn 2003, John Doe XLVI pleaded guilty to and was convicted of possession of sexually explicit material. When Doe was sentenced, possession of sexually explicit material was not a sex offense requiring registration under Maine’s Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act of 1999 (SORNA), and therefore, Doe was not ordered to comply with SORNA. Possession of sexually explicit material was subsequently added to the list of sex offenses. In 2009, the Legislature amended SORNA to provide that a duty to register “is not triggered by a court determination, but by and upon notification.” In 2012, Doe received a notice of the duty to register. Doe filed this action seeking to enjoin the State from pursuing criminal charges against him for failing to register, alleging, inter alia, that SORNA was an invalid bill of attainder. The superior court rejected Doe’s challenges. The Supreme Court vacated the judgment of the trial court, holding that SORNA is punitive as to offenders who were not sentenced to comply with SORNA when SORNA registration was part of sentencing and who were subsequently subjected to SORNA registration when their earlier offenses were added to the statutory list of sex offenses and registration was removed from sentencing.
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