Ed Brayton is a journalist, commentator and speaker. He is the co-founder and president of 
In what may be an important precedent, the Michigan Court of Appeals has ruled that a man arrested for a so-called "Romeo and Juliet" relationship cannot be listed on the state's sex offender registry because doing so would constitute cruel and unusual punishment.
The defendant, Robert Dipiazza, was arrested and convicted of having a consensual sexual relationship with a girl who was nearly 15 when he had just turned 18. The girl's parents knew of and approved of the relationship, but Dipiazza was nonetheless charged after one of the girl's teachers turned him in to police after she found out about the relationship.
The law under which Dipiazza was convicted allowed for youthful offenders to complete a probationary period and then have the offense wiped from their record without a conviction. He completed that probation without incident and in 2005, the charges were dismissed without conviction. Still, he was required then to go on to the state's registered sex offender list because of an arbitrary deadline in a state law governing the sex offender list.
The Michigan Sex Offenders Registration Act was amended in 2004 to the effect that for those convicted as youthful offenders, only those who failed to complete the probationary period had to be put on the registry. But Dipiazza was convicted on Aug. 29 of that year; had he been convicted a mere five weeks later, he would not have been placed on the registry because he completed the probation and the charges and conviction were then dismissed.
The trial court ruled that being required to go on the sex offender list did not constitute cruel and unusual punishment because the registry requirement is not punishment at all. The court did, however, reduce the amount of time the defendant had to be on the list from 25 years to ten years. The appeals court overturned that ruling, agreeing with defendant that the law, as applied in this particular circumstance, constituted cruel and unusual punishment and ordering the trial court to have him removed from the sex offender registry.
The court ruled:
Here, the circumstances of the offense are not very grave. Defendant was 18 years old and in a consensual sexual relationship with a teen who was almost 15 years old. The teen's parents knew of the relationship and condoned it. This teen is the same person defendant married five years later. The gravity of the offense does not change regardless of the date on which the assignment to youthful trainee status occurred.The penalty in this case, however, has been harsh. Defendant is being required to register as a sex offender for ten years. He receives the social stigma of being labeled as a sex offender and the social stigma of being "convicted" of a crime even though he successfully completed his status as youthful trainee and the court dismissed the proceedings. As a result of registering as a sex offender, defendant has been unable to find employment and, in fact, lost two jobs after it was discovered that his name is on the sex offender registry. He is depressed and, although he finally married Trowbridge, the opportunity to marry and pursue happiness was withheld from him because of his inability to find employment as a result of being labeled a convicted sex offender. Given the circumstances of this case, the offense that defendant committed was not very grave, but the penalty has been very harsh.
With regard to a comparison of the penalty to penalties for other crimes in this state, defendant would not have had to register as a sex offender had he been assigned to youthful trainee status approximately one month later than he was. Defendant is required to register as a sex offender along with rapists and pedophiles. The PSOR does not provide a description of an offender's offense. Thus, individuals viewing the PSOR are unable to determine whether a person who is registered is a rapist, a pedophile, or just a person who engaged in consensual sexual activity with a teen...
Also, it is abundantly clear that there is no goal of rehabilitation in this case. Defendant never posed a danger to the public or a danger of reoffending. Defendant is not a sexual predator, nor did the trial court deem him to be. Further, even if defendant needed rehabilitation, SORA's labeling him to be a convicted sex offender works at an opposite purpose, preventing defendant from securing employment and otherwise moving forward with his life plans.
Consequently, after considering the gravity of the offense, the harshness of the penalty, a comparison of the penalty to penalties imposed for the same offense in other states, and the goal of rehabilitation, we conclude that requiring defendant to register as a sex offender for ten years is cruel or unusual punishment.
It's obviously a victory for Dipiazza and defendants who are similarly situated; it sounds to me like a victory for reason as well. Read the full ruling here (PDF).
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Comments
Wow, a case of rationality in sex offender rulings? For people who say that being on a sex-offender registry (and the meaning of that) isn't cruel and unusual punishment, take a look at the maps showing where sex offenders can live and work: in many cities they basically can't.
Lumping all people into one category of "sex offender" would be the same as lumping pick-pocketers with the Bernie Madoffs of the world; or saying that serial killers and those charged with manslaugheter are the same.
The case of Dipiazza above is of a case in which two sexually active children became - due merely to the calendar - a case of statutory rape. Punishing him at the same level as a child rapist is ludicrous, as is any claim that doing so isn't cruel and unusual punishment. I'm happy that this one got ruled this way.
Posted by: mercurianferret | November 9, 2009 9:37 AM
Finally, someone sees what's happening. This exact same thing happened to my son - he was 19 and she was 16. Both parents approved of the relationship and the father even had the "wear a condom" talk with my son. He took my son camping with the family and even gave him a job. That all changed a few months later. He got mad at his daughter and told her she could no longer see my son. When she refused to break up with him, he called the police on my son. He is now in prison and even though his time has been served, they wont let him out. He cant live with me because my 15 year old step-son lives here, my father is too close to a church and a daycare, my mom is across the street from a school and my siblings live in another state. My son has an apartment that falls outside of these terrible restrictions so I kept it for him and paid the rent while he was in jail. Now, parole forced me to tell the landlord and he has to move. My son's future is ruined. When he does get out, he'll have a GPS monitor on. He cannot have a computer or the internet. He cannot be around anyone under 18, even family members. He has to attend sex offender counseling and drug counseling - which makes no sense since drugs have NEVER been an issue. My son never raped anyone, yet he is forced to carry this label of a child molester and live by these impossible restrictions. If this isn't cruel and unusual punishment, I dont know what is.
www.love-is-not-a-crime.com
Posted by: Tonia | November 9, 2009 9:47 AM
I was involved from an I.T. perspective on the sex offender registry in this state. I had to bring up the question about Romeo and Juliet relationships and how it was generally counter-productive to class them as type 1's.
It took a good eight months to hash that all out.
Posted by: Tony P | November 9, 2009 8:59 PM
the man i love is in a very similar situation and this article is amazing to read. i'd love to take some legal steps to help him. if we couldn't get his name completely removed from the registry, i'd settle for dropping the 25 years down to 10. it's a horrible thing to think that others view someone you love dearly as a sexual preditor! my husband wouldn't hurt a fly and is an amazing father to our children. but due to a mistake made when he was young, he can't watch them play ball, be in school plays or even graduate, because he can't go near the school. this truely breaks my heart, and i'd love any help i could get. any lawers ready to try to make history in michigan by changing this law up a bit? i'm all for the registry--for actual sexual preditors. and if young men who found themselves on this list for underage dating must be on there, couldn't they do a rating system so that our neighbors understand this girl was 15 and willing, not a child! please help us to revise this law, why ruin young mens lives for 25 years?
Posted by: TMiller | November 11, 2009 9:55 PM
I am on the LIST for the same type of thing. Back over ten years ago i had a consensual relationship with a girl that had lied to me about her age but in fact that didn't matter to the courts. I wasn't even given a fair trial but accually forced into taking a plea which took a term of 36 years down to 5years. Since then my life has been hell!! I can't hold a job, can't maintain a relationship, can't live in a lot of places and overall has taken a huge finiancal toll on my family as well as myself. I know now that the courts Prosecutor and my so called Public- Defender where bests of friends, females of coarse that strongly avocated against sex-offenders and basically scared the hell out of me to get me to take the plea. I think the laws are horrible and they need to greatly be revised, especially in this kind of situation. To be set beside as a rapist, pedophile, and violent is so far wrong and I would think unconstitutional because that is a far cry of the person I really am. And the whole messed up part about it is there was never any sex involved I had barely dated the girl for a week or so and the most we ever did was kiss, but since i had said that we might have had sex in the future it was considered a attempted sex crime but I still got the same punishment as a serial rapist would have. Way not right it seems to me and now it looks like a lot of other people are finnally coming around to standing up to blatent discard to human rights and a bold statement that our so called goverment can do almost anything they want regaurdless of truth, justice, and the american way!!! If anyone knows how I can petition the court or someone that can help me get this crap dropped off my shoulders would mean a great deal to me and my family!! Just email me painpirate4200@yahoo.com
Posted by: brian bennett | November 23, 2009 5:13 PM
I am a registerd sex offender for fifteen years now when i was twenty one years old i had a relation ship with a fifteen year old who had lied at first but than three months into the relationship told me i had two choices to either love this girl and marry her or to leave her be and break her heart i made the decicion to stand up for this love feeling i had and even told her that i was willing to go to jail to prove that i loved her ,long story short i did and now i have live with being a monster , i later married another and had kids years later but iam not this monster people look at me i want to be a person who helps other people and i cant i am running out of ways to keep food on the table i dont want nothing but to live a normal life it hurts so bad inside and i cant do anything about it but you ask anybody who knows me will tell u its not fair and now he has a family and thats exactly what he does and i won custody of my six year old daughter and eight year old son for the last five years have no help raisin my babies .there what keep me strong i only have eleven more years to register . i dont think its fair if i had a lawyer i would definetly try to get off but who wants to help a sex offender right.
Posted by: gary jedenasty | December 13, 2009 9:04 PM
if anyone has anyway of giving a site or something to those of us like brian bennett or myself on getting help in getting our "time" removed or lowered. I would greatly appreciate it. my story is yet another romeo and juliet one. I was looking at life registry till my "girlfriend" wrote a letter to the court and judge explaining it all to him and they lowered the charge dramatically to CSC 4th degree which is Michigan is a misdemeanor yet I have to register for 25 years.
Posted by: Martin Wells II | January 12, 2010 3:56 PM
pass this around--ilvoices.com This is what we are trying to do
Posted by: dianne nash | February 5, 2010 2:09 PM
Well I had a csc 4 th in MI 1997, 2002 it was expunged but I still am on the internet sex,now in 2010 I am being evicted from the mobile home park where I have lived without any proublems of any kind just because they just now found out, I have tryed every thing ,asked for a pardon from the state, was denied, wrote the Judge that expunged my record, pleaded with him ,no even a reply,I will now loose my home,my two children will have to go somewhere else, and my dog and cat as well,I will have no were to go.
I have tryed every thing,even called the state housing commision, I have no rights, none of us do, yea that's ight a csc 4th and it was expunged, but you still show up on the regerstry and backround checks.
I really think that after 13 years of trying to get by that it was all in vein,if you have one of these offences and are convicted ask the judge to give you life or the death sentence, that is the only way out.I am 59 and had enoughf I fought back because of my kids that keep my going but now I just plain give up.
Posted by: JOE | June 23, 2010 2:43 PM
my brother is going through the same thing he cant live with us either he was put on a sex offender registry and he is forced to live on the streets and its very cold outside he got into trouble with a girl that was 27 and he was 28 and she told us that he was fine with him and he was with her over night at her house and he went home the next day and then 4 days later he was accused of rape and he didnt do this kind of stuff to her at all she likes to lie and she is trying to get money because she went out and got pregnant by another guy and had the baby 9 months later and my brother was in jail from 2009 to 2010 and was finally released and now is on probation and he does what he is asked of doing and he goes to probation every other wednesday and he goes to sex therapy every monday and he finally got a job doing roofing and is doing very well he isnt a threat to anybody and he is doing very well but what can we do to help him my mom cries all the time for him because she dont know what to do my brother is mentally ill and has alot of mental issues we are worried about him what do we do to help him in mt clemens michigam thank you rose
Posted by: rosemary | November 19, 2010 10:15 PM
now my brother is living on the streets he has bipolar1 and a bunch of other features that went on treated as a kid and now he is worse then we thought he was well i am fighting with alot of people through the state to get his name removed from this stupid registry this is very wrong that people have to go through this its cold outside and he has no where to go he cant come here because i live by a school so we have to worry about him being on the streets and dying because of this he has a chemical imbalance real bad please someone tell me what i can do to help him my mom tried to get him help but he dont have any medical right now we really need help thank you very sad and concerned sister
Posted by: rosemary | November 25, 2010 9:50 PM
hang in ther im working with with a retired judge and several attornys and we are going to get things changed
they made the law they can change it
Posted by: james | December 6, 2010 1:29 AM
thank you so very much i hope something can be done to change this law because i am so scared for him he is so sick and he is not reoffending and he is not a bad person so thank you very much
Posted by: rosemary benjamin | December 8, 2010 10:35 PM
someone needs to change this law its getting worse by the minute men are hurting and getting beat up on the streets or they are dying and all they want is to do better and get a place to live and get a job to stay busy its getting so bad on the men that are not a threat to the community at all so lets ban together and let them know that we are not giving up for nobody we need to stand up and fight this law and get it changed thank you rosemary benjamin
Posted by: rosemary benjamin | December 18, 2010 2:21 AM
ok nobody wants to seem to help us with getting my brother off of this registry here it goes this is what is wrong with him and i hope i can get someone to listen to me my brother hank schatz has been diagnosed with bipolar 1 mixed with psychotic features and he has a history of hallucination paranoia ,mania /depression ,anxiety sleep and appetite disturbances and impaired concentration and attention span and nobody will listen to us and help us i have sent letters after letters to legislators and and to congress and to the president and to jennifer granholm and still we get told no he is denied my brother is real sick and he cant even read or write and all i want to do is help him get better and to get him off of this registry thank you very much rosemary
Posted by: rosemary benjamin | December 28, 2010 7:47 PM
damn this law has trned my life upside down. what do we do?
i think it shold be left up to a the victm!! or their parents of the victm,that would say it all,im a sex offender and the vitm is now my wife!!!!
Posted by: larry oldham | February 25, 2011 6:51 AM
hi everybody well i posted on here in november of 2010 about my brother well today he went to therapy classes for his so called sex offense and guess what he got his certificate and it shows he isnt a threat to the community now we have to fight to get him off of the list this is such a good day so far but i still want him to get taken off of the registry cause he dont deserve to be on it at all thanks everyone for reading
Posted by: rosemary | December 5, 2011 7:31 PM