Attorney Aaron Marcus on PA decision

Last month’s NARSOL in Action focused on a great victory in the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.

The Court declared that SORNA’s registration provisions constitute punishment under Article 1, Section 17 of the Pennsylvania Constitution — Pennsylvania’s Ex Post Facto Clause. The Court held:

  • SORNA’s registration provisions constitute punishment notwithstanding the General Assembly’s identification of the provisions as non-punitive
  • retroactive application of SORNA’s registration provisions violates the federal ex post facto clause; and
  • retroactive application of SORNA’s registration provisions also violates the ex post facto clause of the Pennsylvania Constitution.

Our special guest was Aaron Marcus. Mr. Marcus is an attorney with the Defender Association of Philadelphia. He is currently assigned to the appellate division, and has tried numerous bench and jury trials since joining the Defender Association in 2006. He also is an Adjunct Professor of Law at Widener Law School teaching criminal procedure. He received his J.D., cum laude, from the University of Minnesota in 2004 where he was Editor-in-Chief of Volume XXII of the Journal of Law & Inequality and his B.A. from Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts in 2001.

He is now specializing, writing and lecturing in the area of sex offender registration, law, and policy.

You may listen to the podcast here.

Sandy Rozek

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Sandy, a NARSOL board member, is communications director for NARSOL, editor-in-chief of the Digest, and a writer for the Digest and the NARSOL website. Additionally, she participates in updating and managing the website and assisting with a variety of organizational tasks.

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