In
1993, the defendant pled guilty to second-degree criminal sexual conduct and
was sentenced to a prison term. He was
paroled in 1999. In 2013, he pled no
contest to failing to register under the Sex Offender Registration Act (SORA),
MCL 28.721 et seq., conditioned on
his ability to challenge its constitutionality.
In a split decision, the Court of Appeals denied leave to appeal for
lack of merit. After hearing oral
argument on the defendant’s application for leave to appeal, the Supreme Court has
granted leave to appeal to address: (1)
whether the requirements of SORA, taken as a whole, amount to “punishment” for
purposes of the Ex Post Facto Clauses of the Michigan and United States
Constitutions, US Const, art I, § 10; Const 1963, art 1, § 10; see People v Earl, 495 Mich 33 (2014), see
also Does #1-5 v Snyder, 834 F3d 696,
703-706 (CA 6, 2016), cert den sub nom Snyder
v John Does #1-5, 138 S Ct 55 (Oct 2, 2017); (2) if SORA, as a whole,
constitutes punishment, whether it became punitive only upon the enactment of a
certain provision or group of provisions added after the initial version of
SORA was enacted; (3) if SORA only became punitive after a particular
enactment, whether a resulting ex post facto violation would be remedied by
applying the version of SORA in effect before it transformed into a punishment
or whether a different remedy applies, see Weaver
v Graham, 450 US 24, 36 n 22 (1981) (“the proper relief . . . is to remand
to permit the state court to apply, if possible, the law in place when his
crime occurred.”); (4) if one or more discrete provisions of SORA, or groups of
provisions, are found to be ex post facto punishments, whether the remaining
provisions can be given effect retroactively without applying the ex post facto
provisions, see MCL 8.5; (5) what consequences would arise if the remaining
provisions could not be given retroactive effect; and (6) whether the answers
to these questions require the reversal of the defendant’s conviction pursuant
to MCL 28.729 for failure to register under SORA.