Opinion ID: 2007417
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The General Assembly Intended KRS 17.545 To Be Civil Rather Than Punitive.

Text: The majority correctly concedes that the General Assembly intended KRS 17.545's residence restrictions to serve a regulatory, non-punitive, public safety function. Indeed, the residence restrictions have been codified in the Public Safety Chapter of the Kentucky Revised Statutes, Chapter 17, immediately following the Sex Offender Registration Act, an Act held to be non-punitive and thus not subject to the Ex Post Facto Clause, in Hyatt v. Commonwealth, 72 S.W.3d 566 (Ky.2002). Nevertheless, the majority concludes that KRS 17.545's residence restrictions are so punitive in effect as to belie the General Assembly's apparently regulatory intent and to render KRS 17.545 inapplicable to the many registered sex offenders whose crimes were committed prior to the statute's effective date of July 12, 2006. This ruling obviously deals a severe blow to the statute's effectiveness and reflects, in my judgment, this Court's failure to give due deference to the General Assembly's contrary intent.