Commonwealth v. AckleyCommonwealth v. Ackley
OPINION BY
Donald Lee Ackley appeals from the order of the Court of Common Pleas of Cumberland County denying his petition for exemption from the provision of Megan’s Law requiring internet posting of photographs and information regarding lifetime registrants. See
On February 7, 1986, Ackley pled guilty to rape, and on March 18, 1986, the court sentenced him to a term of five to fifteen years’ imprisonment. After completing his maximum sentence, Ackley was released from prison on January 1, 2001.
In 1996, during Ackley’s incarceration, Megan’s Law I went into effect, imposing a ten-year reporting and registration requirement for individuals convicted of rape.
On January 24, 2005, four years after Ackley was released from prison, Megan’s Law III went into effect, adding, inter alia, the following provision:
§ 9798.1 Information made available on the Internet and electronic notification
(a) Legislative findings. — It is hereby declared to be the finding of the General Assembly that public safety will be enhanced by making information about sexually violent predators, lifetime registrants and other sex offenders available to the public through the Internet and electronic notification. Knowledge of whether a person is a sexually violent predator, lifetime registrant or other sex offender could be a significant factor in protecting oneself and one’s family members, or those in care of a group or community organization, from recidivist acts by sexually violent predators, lifetime registrants and other sex offenders. The technology afforded by the Internet and electronic notification would make this information readily accessible toparents and private entities, enabling them to undertake appropriate remedial precautions to prevent or avoid placing potential victims at risk. Public access to information about sexually violent predators, lifetime registrants and other sex offenders is intended solely as a means of public protection and shall not be construed as punitive.
After his release from prison, Ackley married and became a father. For the past seven years he has been legally blind as the result of a hereditary disease. Because of the internet publication of information regarding his lifetime registrant status, Ackley “struggles with constant evictions and harassment by the community while attempting to raise his son and protect his marriage.” Trial Court Opinion, 10/11/11, at 2.
In September 2008, Ackley pled guilty to violating Section 4915(a) of the Crimes Code,
On June 16, 2009, the trial court denied Ackley’s petition for exemption from the internet posting requirements. However, by order filed October 3, 2009, it appointed counsel to file a second petition. Following the filing of a counseled petition on January 25, 2011, the court scheduled a hearing on August 17, 2011. On October 11, 2011, the court denied relief, although it was “completely satisfied that the people of the Commonwealth are not endangered by ... Ackley.”
On November 4, 2011, Ackley filed a timely notice of appeal, and now raises the following issues for our review.
Is [Ackley] retroactively subject to the internet registration requirements under Megan’s Law that became effective in [January of 2005] when:
1. [H]e completed his sentence in 2001 and was not under probation, parole or any intermediate sentence; [and]
2. [T]he [trial] court concluded [Ack-ley] is not a threat to public safety; and found that posting [his] internet information serves “no greater good”?
Brief of Appellant, at 4.
During Ackley’s incarceration, he became subject to the lifetime registration requirement of Megan’s Law II, which became effective on July 9, 2000. See
Ackley asserts that
With respect to the legislature’s purpose,
With respect to the objective purpose of
With respect to the harshness of effect prong, the Supreme Court’s discussion of the notification requirements of Megan’s Law II in Commonwealth v. Williams,
The critical issue for our present purposes is that, even to the extent that notification under Megan’s Law II may have some punitive effect in terms of shaming the sex offender, such effect has not been demonstrated to be sufficient in itself to render the challenged measures criminal punishment for constitutional purposes. For one thing, whether a sanction constitutes punishment is not determined from the defendant’s perspective, as even remedial sanctions carry the sting of punishment. Equally important, any punitive effect that results from being designated a sexually violent predator is not gratuitous, but rather, an inevitable consequence of the effectuation of the law’s remedial objective of protecting vulnerable members of the public. Thus, unlike shaming punishments such as stocks and cages — where there would have been alternative means of notifying the community that a certain individual had committed a particular crime — the notification provisions of Megan’s Law appear to be reasonably calculated to accomplish self-protection only, and not to impose additional opprobrium upon the offender unrelated to that goal.
Id. at 976 (internal quotations and citations omitted).
The reasoning employed by Williams with respect to the notification requirements of Megan’s Law II applies equally to the internet posting of information regarding lifetime registrants pursuant to Megan’s Law III. Internet posting accomplishes the goal of Megan’s Law II of informing the public of lifetime registrants so that the public may take precautions to avoid potential risk. For these reasons,
Section 9795.5(1) of the Judicial Code provides relief from notification requirements for some lifetime registrants, and states in relevant part:
§ 9795.5. Exemption from certain notifications
(a) Lifetime registrants not classified as sexually violent predators.
(1) An individual required to register undersection 9795.1 (relating to registration) who is not a sexually violent predator may petition the sentencing court to be exempt from the application ofsection (relating to information made available on the Internet and electronic notification) provided no less than 20 years have passed since the individual has been convicted in this or any other jurisdiction of any offense punishable by imprisonment for more than one year, or the individual’s release from custody following the individual’s most recent conviction for any such offense, whichever is later.9798.1
Ackley’s guilty plea to violating
Ackley next asserts that he should not be subject to the internet registration requirements in light of the trial court’s determination that he is not a threat to public safety and that posting his information on the internet serves “no greater good.” Section 1921 of the Statutory Construction Act of 1921 provides, in relevant part, that “when the words of a statute are clear and free from all ambiguity, the letter of it is not to be disregarded under the pretext of pursuing its spirit.”
Order affirmed.
Notes
.Although Ackley was sentenced on March 18, 1986, he was given credit on the sentence from November 3, 1985.
.
.
. The violation of