HELENA - A Montana Supreme Court ruling deemed legislative amendments to the 2007 Sexual and Violent Offender Registration Act punitive in nature and in violation of the ex post facto clause of the constitution if applied retroactively to offenses that happened before the amendments.
According to a summary of the case of Montana v. Hinman, the ruling “held that numerous legislative amendments to the Act added restraints on registrants that significantly hinder their liberty and privacy.”
The defendant and appellant in the case, Richard Denver Hinman, was convicted of sexual assault in 1994. At the time of his conviction, he was required to maintain registration as a sexual offender with annual verification through the mail for 10 years.
Since that time, court documents say the state legislature amended Montana’s Sexual or Violent Offender Registration Act and applied changes retroactively to previously convicted registrants.
In 2019, Hinman was charged with failure to register. Court documents say he argued to dismiss the case because “the amended SVORA requirements rendered the statute an unconstitutional ex post facto punishment for his earlier crime.”
The District Court denied Hinman’s motion. The Montana Supreme Court reversed the decision saying, “We hold that SVORA, as amended since 2007, is punitive in nature. The requirements brought on by those amendments cannot be retroactively applied to defendants whose convictions predate them.”
Two justices — Jim Rice and Beth Baker — dissented. Read the case, majority opinion and dissenting opinion here.
