A Michigan Supreme Court ruling last week has prompted Michigan State Police to scrub the names of almost half the people listed on the state's Sex Offender Registry.
Before the Friday, Sept. 9, ruling, there were about 43,000 offenders registered or required to register under Michigan law. By Friday, more than 20,000 of them had been removed from the list, according to Col. James F. Grady II, director of the Michigan State Police.
The state police "did not make this change to the law," Grady said in a statement. "However, the department maintains the database, is required to comply with the Court’s order and is taking the necessary steps to implement the ruling. Any concerns about or efforts to change the law should be directed to the state Legislature.”
Grady said the review of names on the list continues and more could be deleted.
At issue are changes state lawmakers made to the Sex Offender Registry Act, increasing the amount of time some offenders remain on the list and imposed other requirements on them.
"The legislature changed the registry really substantially and did that retroactively," said Miriam Aukerman, director of strategic litigation for the ACLU of Michigan. "It made it much more punitive. It extended many people to lifetime registration."
Aukerman called Michigan's registry one of the most bloated in the country and notes that it has been the subject of several lawsuits.
"This is the latest in a long line of court decisions both state and federal, holding various aspects of Michigan's registry are unconstitutional," Aukerman said. "It only applies to people with offenses that are 15 years old or older."
The ruling came in a case filed by Eddie Lee Smith, 61, of West Michigan. In 2010, Smith pleaded no contest in Kent County to one count of first-degree criminal sexual conduct and one count of second-degree criminal sexual conduct. The charges involve separate assaults. The first was in 1995 and the second was in 2010, involving girls who were 15 and 13 at the time of the assaults, according to court records.
Smith was sentenced to 15-30 years in prison and was granted parole in 2024. Changes made in 2011 to the Sex Offender Registration Act placed offenders into tiers. Smith's first-degree criminal sexual conduct conviction placed him in tier III, which required lifetime registration.
Lawyers for Smith argued that extended registration requirements were passed after his crimes had been committed and therefore were unconstitutional ex post facto punishment. The case turned on whether the registration requirements were in fact punishent, or something else, like a civil measure designed to alert the public to convicted sex offenders living nearby.
"The statutory requirements enacted after the commission of his crimes amount to punishment," the State Supreme Court ruled Sept. 9. "Requiring him to register under the 2021" Sex Offender Registry Act "is therefore an ex post facto punishment, in violation of US Constitution."
As of Sunday afternoon, Smith was not listed on the state's Sex Offender Registry, though he was still listed on the Michigan Department of Corrections website as a discharged offender.
Contact John Wisely: jwisely@freepress.com. On X: @jwisely
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan court ruling removes 20,000 names from sex offender registry
