A landmark ruling from the Michigan Supreme Court purged 20,000 people from the state's sex offender registry in a decision that has some worried about public safety.
The Michigan State Police were recently forced to remove 20,000 individuals from the state’s sex offender registry after a landmark ruling from the State Supreme Court.
The ruling prohibited State Police from including people on the sex offender registry who was convicted of a sex crime prior to July 1st of 2011.
The court found that amendments to sex offender registration requirements passed in 2011 and 2021 amounted to a retroactive increase in criminal punishment, also known as ex post facto law.
The ruling removed multiple prominent sex offenders from the registry who were convicted of heinous crimes, including Olympic physician Larry Nassar.
Nassar was sentenced in 2017 and 2018 for possessing child pornography and serial sexual abuse of Olympic athletes, many of whom were minors at the time the crime was committed.
Members of the public and local prosecutors have already expressed concerns about the ruling, saying that it was done hastily and undermines public safety.
“Obviously disappointed in the decision, especially since the Court took this important step of removing thousands of people from the registry, without hearing oral arguments on it as is normally done in important cases,” Kent County Prosecutor Chris Becker said in an email.
The Director of the Michigan State Police said the department is taking all necessary steps to comply with the ruling, and put the impetus on the state legislature to change the law.
“The MSP did not make this change to the law. 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,” Col. James F. Grady II, director of the Michigan State Police, said in a news release. “Any concerns about or efforts to change the law should be directed to the state Legislature.”
