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2015 Wis. L. Rev. 289 (2015)
Notice(ing) Ex-Offenders: A Case Study of the Manifest Injustice of Passively Violating a Felon-in-Possession Statute

handle is hein.journals/wlr2015 and id is 297 raw text is: 







NOTICE(ING) EX-OFFENDERS: A CASE STUDY OF THE
  MANIFEST INJUSTICE OF PASSIVELY VIOLATING A
            FELON-IN-POSSESSION STATUTE

                        S. DAVID MITCHELL*

Introduction ........................................................................................... 289
I. Missouri's Felon-in-Possession Statute ............................................. 292
      A . The Pre-2008 Statute  ............................................................. 292
      B. The Post-2008 Statute and the Reason for the Change .......... 293
      C. The Incident That Prompted the Change ............................... 294
      D. The Proposed Change to the Felon-in-Possession Statute ..... 295
II. The Case of W illie  L. W illiam s ........................................................ 297
      A . A Felon N o M ore ................................................................... 298
      B. W aking U p a Felon  ................................................................ 299
      C . The 2007 Ex Parte ................................................................. 300
      D . The 2009 Ex Parte ................................................................. 302
III. No Notice or Grace Period is the Real Mistake of Law .................. 304
       A. The Lambert Majority-Notice and a Grace Period ............. 305
       B. The Dissent-Lack of Notice is Not a Due Process
           V iolation  .............................................................................. 307
IV. Applying Lambert to Willie L. Williams ........................................ 307
       A. No Actual Knowledge of the Amended Law ........................ 308
       B. No Probability of Knowing the Amended Law ................. 308
       C. No Grace Period for Compliance .......................................... 310
       D . Type of  L aw   .......................................................................... 313
C onclusion ............................................................................................. 314

                           INTRODUCTION

     Ignorance of the law excuses no man: not that all men know
     the law, but because 'tis an excuse every one will plead, and no
     man can tell how to refute him.'



     *     Associate Professor, University of Missouri, School of Law. J.D.,
 University of Pennsylvania; Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania; and B.A., Brown
 University. I would like to dedicate this Article to Willie L. Williams and all of the other
 men and women who are burdened with the stigma of a criminal conviction as they
 attempt to successfully reintegrate back into society. This Article was funded in part by
 the University of Missouri School of Law Faculty Summer Research Fund. I would like
 to thank my research assistants John Costello, Elizabeth Judy, and Christian Gordon for
 their research.

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