Court Opinion

ID: 9732180
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 16:11:00.489096+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:26:24.679292
License: Public Domain

JUSTICE HEIPLE, dissenting: Because the Sex Offender Registration Act (Registration Act) (730 ILCS 150/1 et seq. (West 1998)) and the Sex Offender and Child Murderer Community Notification Law (Notification Law) (730 ILCS 152/101 et seq. (West 1998)) unconstitutionally impose additional punishment upon an offender who has already served his court-imposed sentence for his crime, I dissent. FACTS Following a bench trial on March 20, 1998, defendant was convicted of failing to register as a sex offender as required by the Sex Offender Registration Act (730 ILCS 150/3(a)(2) (West 1998)). This conviction was premised upon defendant’s 1988 conviction for aggravated criminal sexual abuse against a person under the age of 18 (see 111. Rev. Stat. 1987, ch. 38, par. 12 — 16). For failing to comply with the Registration Act, the trial court sentenced defendant to 18 months’ conditional discharge and fined him $500. In addition, the court ordered defendant to comply with the Registration Act. On appeal, defendant argued that the Registration Act is unconstitutional because, inter alia: (1) it violates the ex post facto clauses of the United States and Illinois Constitutions (U.S. Const., art. I, § 10, cl. 1; Ill. Const. 1970, art. I, § 16); and (2) it subjects defendant to double jeopardy in violation of the United States and Illinois Constitutions (U.S. Const., amend. V; Ill. Const. 1970, art. I, § 10). The appellate court rejected defendant’s arguments and affirmed defendant’s conviction. 306 111. App. 3d 665. The majority today affirms the appellate court. DISCUSSION As the majority correctly observes, several of defendant’s arguments depend upon whether or not this court characterizes the Registration Act as punishment. 193 Ill. 2d at 419. In holding that the Registration Act does not constitute punishment, the majority largely relies upon this court’s opinion in People v. Adams, 144 Ill. 2d 381 (1991). In that case, this court upheld an earlier version of the Registration Act after holding that requiring sex offenders to register was not punishment. The majority notes, however, that Adams is not completely dispositive of the case at bar, because the community notification provisions of the Notification Law were not in effect at the time of the Adams decision. 193 Ill. 2d at 419. Indeed, in Adams, this court relied in part upon the absence of community notification in holding that the Registration Act did not constitute cruel and unusual punishment. This court held: “We fail to see how any stigma attaches to a registrant that is not already present through his own actions. Although required to register, the information conveyed to law enforcement officials concerning the registrant’s criminal history is already available in the public record. The Registration Act simply makes that information more readily available to the police. Furthermore, the law enforcement community is prohibited from disseminating the information to the public at large on pain of criminal sanctions. The existence of a ‘stigma’ requires that the knowledge of the registrant’s past transgressions be conveyed to the general public. Since it is a criminal offense for law enforcement officials to convey this information to the public, it is unlikely the information the registrant supplies will be distributed to the public, and so no stigma attaches.” (Emphasis added.) Adams, 144 Ill. 2d at 389-90. The facts of the instant case are much different from those of Adams. Here, pursuant to the provisions of the Notification Law and in stark contrast to the state of the law as it existed in Adams, law enforcement officials are affirmatively required to disseminate a registrant’s personal information to numerous parties, including: school boards; school principals; and child care facilities. In addition, the Notification Law vests officials with the discretion to convey registration information to any person deemed by the officials'to be “likely” to encounter any sex offender required to register under the Registration Act. 730 ILCS 152/120(b) (West 1998). Officials are further required to make information on registered sex offenders available for public inspection and copying. Finally, recent amendments to the Notification Law expressly authorize police to publish information concerning certain sex offenders, including the offenders’ photographs, in newspapers, on television, or on the Internet. 730 ILCS 152/120(c), (d) (West Supp. 1999). Together, the Registration Act and the Notification Law have the clear and unmistakable effect of imposing additional punishment upon an offender who has already been tried, convicted, and has served his lawful sentence. These statutes, by design, will often result in shame and humiliation for ex-offenders, causing significant hardship as they attempt to reenter society as useful citizens. Whether this shame and humiliation might, in the view of some, be deserved is beside the point. What matters is that the State has already had its opportunity to impose whatever measure of retribution against defendant the criminal law allows. Once an offender has served his sentence, the punishment must stop. Under the Registration Act and the Notification Law, however, the punishment continues long after an offender has served his sentence. As such, the provisions of these statutes have far more in common with the historic punishments of branding and banishment than with the law enforcement procedures this court approved in Adams. Accordingly, I would hold that the Registration Act and Notification Law unconstitutionally subject defendant to double jeopardy. In addition, because the statutes at issue were enacted subsequent to defendant’s 1988 conviction for aggravated criminal sexual abuse, application of these laws to defendant violates prohibitions against ex post facto laws, as well. I therefore respectfully dissent.