Tougher amendments to New York State’s sex offender registration law made years after a defendant pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor do not violate the Ex Post Facto Clause of the U.S. Constitution, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit said Monday.
The Second Circuit rejected an as-applied challenge to the 2006 amendments to the New York State Sex Offender Registration Act (SORA), saying the changes, passed seven years after the offender pleaded guilty to an offense involving child pornography, did not violate the constitutional prohibition against increasing the punishment for a crime after it has been committed.
