Ohio youth sex offender registration rule blocked

COLUMBUS (AP) — Requiring juvenile sex offenders convicted in juvenile courts to register as sex offenders for life amounts to cruel and unusual punishment and violates young offenders’ due process rights, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled today in striking down another portion of a 2007 get-tough sex offender law.

The 5-2 decision overturned the mandatory lifelong-notification requirement imposed on a 15-year-old Athens County boy convicted in 2009 on juvenile charges of raping a 6-year-old relative.

Not only is the requirement unconstitutional, it also defeats the purpose of the juvenile court system, Justice Paul Pfeifer said, writing for the majority.

The mandatory registration "undercuts the rehabilitative purpose of Ohio’s juvenile system and eliminates the important role of the juvenile court’s discretion in the disposition of juvenile offenders and thus fails to meet the due-process requirement of fundamental fairness,” Justice Pfeifer wrote.