Citizens for Criminal Justice Reform – New Hampshire

Sex offender laws endanger the public by targeting 2,400 people on the State Police website.

The N.H. Supreme Court is pondering the fate of a man convicted, several decades ago, of sexually assaulting his teenage stepdaughter. The man has served out his prison sentence, undergone years of counseling and been deemed “rehabilitated” by the court.

The Supreme Court heard oral arguments on May 8 that the sex offender public registry has become so oppressive it constitutes an unconstitutional retroactive punishment. The constitution bars imposing a new punishment that did not exist at the time of the crime.

A bill written by Citizens for Criminal Justice Reform to ban residency restrictions against sex offenders got a semi respectful kiss of death this week in the Senate Judiciary Committee. It voted 5-0 to send the proposal to interim study, but the Senate is not doing any interim studies this year.