The Legal statute commonly referred to as Megan's Law, is the public notification of sexual offenders' identity, location and other information. It was inspired after 7-year-old Megan Kanka was raped and murdered by a repeat sex offender in New Jersey. It requires the Department of Justice to maintain a database of sex offenders, optionally let the states develop their own databases, and require the states to enact public notification laws or lose federal crime-fighting funds.

Megan's law violates Double Jeopardy, which prevents a criminal from being tried, convicted or PUNISHED for the same offense twice. By having his name publicly published as a sex offender, the offender will continue his life as one of punishment, even after they have fulfilled their sentence. Civil Libertarians and other critics have called the registration requirement a "badge of infamy" that is attached to offenders for the rest of their lives. I know it's difficult to have sympathy with a convicted sex off

ender, which is why this law is so popular, but that is not what we are debating here. We are not debating whether this law is good bad, unjust, or fair, we are debating its constitutionality, and that constitionality has been violated. Someone who has paid his time for their crimes and been properly rehabilitated does not deserve to be branded for the rest of his life.

This law encourages private citizens to act as vigilantes. This leads to forms of cruel and unusual punishment, which is illegal. Just for having their name publicly known as a sex offender the following incidents have occurred. In California an ex-offender has his car firebombed. In New Jersey a man was brutally beaten while walking his dog. Also in New Jersey a house was shot into wounding the landlord on the floor above. In Washington state as well as New Jersey, homes have been destroyed, burned, vandalized, and graphitied by arson. Has this law been in effect these people would not have been attacked. There have been incidents in more than 25 states where mobs have shouted at the house of an ex-offender with bullhorns and have not relenting until he has moved away. These are still people, they have served their time, learned their lesson; they do not deserve this. These are only a fraction of the incidents that have taken place nation wide. These have taken place because of the underlying assumption that once you have committed a crime you are guilty for life. It is not a 15 year sentence with a 15 year punishment, It is not a 40 year sentence with a 40 year punishment. It is a sentence with an addition of life punishment. Megan's law is clearly imposing additional restrictions on these individuals' freedom and privacy beyond those contained in their sentence. This is Double Jeopardy, if the judges thought that these people deserved more punishment they would have given it.

I think that the view of this debate has drawn away from what was intended. We are not debating whether this law is good, bad, moral or unjust. We are not debating whether the

Some common words found in the essay are:
Megan's Law, Civil Libertarians, Washington Jersey, Facto Clause, Department Corrections, Court Appeals, Schroeder People, Court Pennsylvania, Double Jeopardy, ACLU People, megan's law, sex offenders, sex offender, debating law, debating constitutionality, sexual offenders, law unconstitutional, circuit court appeals, name publicly, law wrong, register police, statistics department corrections, offenders released prison, debating law bad, version megan's law,
Approximate Word count = 1387
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)