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2002 Connecticut Attorney General Reports and Opinions 1 (2002)

handle is hein.sag/sagct0021 and id is 1 raw text is: Attorney General's Opinion
Attorney General, Richard Blumenthal
January 15, 2002
The Honorable Joseph Pellegrino
Chief Court Administrator
Supreme Court Building
231 Capitol Avenue
Hartford, CT 06106
Dear Judge Pellegrino:
Your office has asked whether the recent injunction regarding Connecticut's
Sexual Offender Registration Act (SORA) issued by the United States District
Court of Connecticut, and upheld by the Second Circuit, impedes in any way the
implementation of Public Act 01-211, concerning victim notification. That Act
requires victim notification of applications for exemption from the Sex Offender
Registry or its notification requirements. As set forth more fully below, we
conclude that Public Act 01- 211 is enforceable and not affected by the District
Court's ruling.
In 1998, the Connecticut legislature enacted a broad version of what is commonly
known as Megan's Law, currently codified at Conn. Gen. Stat. §§ 54-250 et seq.
The law required persons convicted of certain sexual criminal offenses to register
with the State of Connecticut Department of Public Safety (DPS). The law also
required the Department to maintain a centralized list of sexual offenders and to
make that list available to the public both upon request and on an Internet webpage
accessible to the public. The law further required individual police departments
and State Police Troop offices to maintain a list of persons on the centralized
registry who reside locally.
In 1999, the legislature enacted certain exemptions to the previously enacted,
broadly sweeping law. First, offenders within the family of the victim and
offenders 19 and under could apply to be exempt from the registration
requirements altogether if the sentencing court found the registration to be
unnecessary for public safety. Conn. Gen. Stat. § 54-251 et seq. Also, persons
convicted between 1988 and 1998 of enumerated offenses who had never been
incarcerated and who had not been convicted of any further crimes requiring
registration could apply to be exempt from the dissemination of information
required with regard to the registry. Conn. Gen. Stat. § 54-255.

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