Sanchez v. State, 79 A.3d 405

In 2002 Jeffrey Scott Sanchez was convicted in Frederick County of a fourth-degree sex offense; at that time registration was not required because the victim was an adult.
In 2010 Maryland amended its sex-offender registry statutes to require retroactive registration for fourth-degree sex offenses and created tiered reporting obligations; Sanchez was designated Tier I.
As a homeless Tier I registrant, Sanchez was required to report weekly under the amended statute.
Sanchez was convicted in 2012 and 2013 (on agreed statements of fact) of failing to register weekly; he challenged those convictions as violating Maryland’s ex post facto prohibition.
The circuit court denied the challenge; Sanchez appealed and the appellate court consolidated the appeals and reversed the convictions.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Whether retroactive application of the 2010 registry amendments violates Maryland’s ex post facto clause	Retroactive registration imposed new, punitive disadvantages (e.g., reporting, disclosure, stigma) and therefore violates Article 17	Doe is distinguishable; procedural posture differs and federal SORNA or other convictions might justify registration	The court followed Doe and held retroactive application violates Maryland’s ex post facto clause and reversed the failure-to-register convictions

Doe v. Dep't of Pub. Safety & Corr. Servs., 430 Md. 535, 62 A.3d 123 (Md. 2013) (plurality holding that retroactive registry requirements violated Maryland’s ex post facto clause)
Smith v. Doe, 538 U.S. 84 (2003) (U.S. Supreme Court’s intent-effects test for determining whether civil registration is punitive)