Successive motion for relief from judgment; Whether application of the 2021 Sex Offenders Registration Act’s (SORA) registration requirements to defendant was an ex post facto punishment; People v Betts; People v Lymon; Kennedy v Mendoza-Martinez (the Mendoza-Martinez factors)

Holding that the 2021 SORA amendments do not constitute punishment as to sex offenders under the Ex Post Facto Clauses of the state and federal constitution, the court affirmed the trial court’s order denying defendant’s successive motion for relief from judgment. He was convicted of CSC I for participating in the gang rape of the victim in 1980. The trial court sentenced him as a fourth-offense habitual offender to concurrent terms of 35 to 100 years for each offense. He later became subject to the requirements of the SORA, when it took effect in 1995. After his release from prison, he filed a motion arguing that application of the 2011 SORA registration requirements to him was an ex post facto punishment as a retroactive change in the law. The prosecution acknowledged he could no longer be required to register under the 2011 SORA, but that the 2021 SORA cured the unconstitutional elements as applied to him. The trial court denied his motion, finding he was required to register under the 2021 SORA. On appeal, the court rejected his argument that the 2021 SORA is criminal punishment, and thus, subject to ex post facto consideration. At the end of its Mendoza-Martinez inquiry, the court found that defendant failed to carry the high burden of showing “by ‘the clearest proof’ that the 2021 SORA ‘is so punitive either in purpose or effect as to negate the State’s intention to deem it civil.’” It noted that a “finding of a rational connection to a non-punitive purpose goes a long way under towards finding a regulation not being punishment, nor excessive.” And this “conclusion, coupled with the lesser weighted findings for defendant under [Mendoza-Martinez] factors 1, 2 and 3 resulting both from the changes made to 2021 SORA and the fact we are dealing only with sex offenders,” caused the court to reach a different conclusion than recently reached in a Michigan federal district court decision. “We hold that the 2021 SORA does not constitute punishment as applied to CSC-I offenders and, therefore, that there is no ex post facto violation.”