Tennessee lawmakers are in a rush to make changes to the state’s sex offender registry to avoid parts of it being deemed unconstitutional. This comes after a federal judge in Michigan removed thousands of people from that state’s list — and as 30 virtually identical lawsuits are pending against the state of Tennessee.
The majority of those lawsuits allege that amendments made to the sex offender registry shouldn’t apply retroactively. It’s the same issue that has Michigan lawmakers scrambling to create a new registry. Tennessee legislators held a meeting in Nashville on Wednesday to explore how they could get ahead of the issue here.
Attorney Ryan Davis, who is part of some of the lawsuits against the state, gave suggestions.
“The current restrictions on where registered offenders can live and work do more harm than good and should be eliminated,” Davis said. “We believe that there should no longer be a lifetime requirement as the perceived benefit of lifetime registration is easily outweighed by the cost of enforcement and the resulting impediment to rehabilitation.”
Another was to give judges more discretion to decide whether an individual should remain on the registry.
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