Sex offender registry case heads to highest court

WASILLA -- The U.S. Supreme Court agreed Tuesday to hear the Alaska sex offender registry case relating to those on the registry list whose offenses were committed prior to 1994.

The country's highest court will hear oral arguments in October, said Verne Rupright, the Wasilla attorney who won the case at the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals level.

The U.S. Supreme court hears cases from October to June.

At that time, attorneys from the Alaska attorney general's office and Rupright, with co-council Darryl Thompson, will argue the case before U.S. justices in Washington, D.C. The state has 45 days to file its brief, explaining why it is appealing the 9th Circuit's ruling.

Alaska's Department of Law in December asked the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the case after it disagreed with a 9th Circuit ruling that decided the state is violating the U.S. Constitution by punishing convicts "ex post facto," or after the fact.

The 9th Circuit took up one aspect of Alaska's registry and issued its decision in April 2000.

"We conclude that, as to defendants whose crimes were committed before its enactment, the Alaska statute violates the ex post facto clause," wrote deciding Circuit Judge Stephen Reinhardt.

But no action was taken in response until U.S. District Judge H. Russel Holland issued a Jan. 18 injunction requiring the state to stop publishing the names of those who fall into that category.

That decision forced the Department of Public Safety to shut down the Internet registry until the more-than-2,700 names of those whose offenses predated the 1994 registry law could be removed. The registry is now back on line.

The state Department of Law didn't agree that those names should be removed, said Cynthia Cooper, assistant attorney general. Some 20 other states have appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court asking for review of cases currently under appeal relating to their sex offender registry laws, Cooper said.

"At least that many are interested in the Alaska case chosen for review," Cooper said.

The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments and issue a decision only on the ex post facto part of the Alaska statute, which required those whose offenses were committed prior to Aug. 10, 1994, to register four times a year and publishes their photo and other data online.

In the meantime, the state requires only sex offenders who were convicted after Aug. 10, 1994, to register.

"The state of Alaska is hoping to put the Internet site back to where it was when all sex offenders were required to register," said Alaska State Trooper spokesman Tim DeSpain. "It is the responsibility of those who used to be on the site to contact the state and say 'I want to be notified if and when I am required to register.' Or they should keep track and if it changes, they will need to start registering."

Rupright and Thompson began arguing in 1994 that the Alaska sex-offender laws denied due process and other constitutionally guaranteed freedoms.

Thompson, who was interviewed Tuesday by the Washington Post and a Los Angeles radio station after the U.S. Supreme Court accepted the case, said he welcomes the opportunity.

"You can call it a due-process claim or an ex-post-facto claim but either way, the Alaska statute doesn't allow for an individualized assessment to determine who is dangerous and who isn't," Thompson said. "The Supreme Court will be looking at this."