NARSOL In Action
Wednesday, August 2nd
6:00 to 7:30 p.m. E.D.T.
You are invited to hear about a great victory announced by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in the case of Commonwealth v Muniz. See full opinion here. You may also read NARSOL’s analysis of the decision here.
The Court declared that SORNA’s registration provisions constitute punishment under Article 1, Section 17 of the Pennsylvania Constitution — Pennsylvania’s Ex Post Facto Clause. The Court held:
- SORNA’s registration provisions constitute punishment notwithstanding the General Assembly’s identification of the provisions as nonpunitive;
- retroactive application of SORNA’s registration provisions violates the federal ex post facto clause; and
- retroactive application of SORNA’s registration provisions also violates the ex post facto clause of the Pennsylvania Constitution.
Our special guest will be Aaron Marcus. Mr. Marcus is an attorney with the Defender Association of Philadelphia. He is currently assigned to the appellate division, and has tried numerous bench and jury trials since joining the Defender Association in 2006. He also is an Adjunct Professor of Law at Widener Law School teaching criminal procedure. He received his J.D., cum laude, from the University of Minnesota in 2004 where he was Editor-in-Chief of Volume XXII of the Journal of Law & Inequality and his B.A. from Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts in 2001.
Before joining the Defender Association, Mr. Marcus served as a staff attorney for the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. He has written and published on issues of drug policy, policing, and federalism. His articles have appeared in the William Mitchell Law Review, the Kansas Journal of Law & Public Policy and the Whittier Journal of Child & Family Advocacy.
He is now specializing, writing and lecturing in the area of sex offender registration, law, and policy.
Registration is free; please sign up so we will know how many to expect. The number is 641.715.3660, code 957605#.