Sort of an idle question. My old scoutmaster was convicted of molesting kids a couple of decades ago. They gave him probation, but he violated it and I recall him going to jail for parole violation. By now he must be in his eighties.
So there was some sort of sex offender news and out of curisoity I went the Maryland Sexual Offender register. I entered our zip code and was amused by the mug shots of various people.
But my old scoutmaster was not listed. I did a google search, and he seems to be alive, he is listed as a donor periodicly on his church’s web site.
OK, is there any obvious reason why such a person would not be listed in a state’s registry?
Well, he was convicted more than twenty years ago. Perhaps they take you off the list after a few decades? Maybe he was convicted before the registry law began?
In Tennesse, only convictions after a certain date (the creation of the sex offender registry, I suppose) are on the registry. Convictions before that time are not listed on the registry.
If I’m not mistaken, any person who was convicted of a sex crime and who served out his (or, I suppose, her) sentence before the Sex Offender Registries for the various states were put in place, and who has done nothing to warrant inclusion since their start is exempt from being listed, essentially as a bit of ex post facto law.
Wow, I’ve just been browsing the sexual offender database for my area, and I noticed a guy whose name was on the wall of State Champions in my high school wrestling room. He’s now 57 years old and was arrested for “criminally deviate conduct” and served 28 years!!! And it’s a pretty unique name, so it’s got to be him.