Anyone that has committed a sex-based offense with a “possible” prison term of over (1) year, even if no time was served, will have to register for life (Tier III) or (25) years (Tier II) even if they were not “convicted”, even if they have never had to register before… I.e. people with a “deferred adjudication” whose conviction was “sealed”, “expunged”, whatever… as long as there was a sentence imposed:

(Directly from the Final Guidelines, p.82: “For example, SORNA’s requirements remain applicable if a jurisdiction has a procedure under which certain sex offense convictions (e.g., those of young adult sex offenders who satisfy certain criteria) are referred to as something other than “convictions,” or are nominally “vacated” or “set aside,” but the sex offender remains subject to penal consequences based on the conviction.”

In Connecticut, this includes people whom were granted “accelerated rehabilitation” for a sex-based offense. The registration window begins from the date of sentence (see the Final Guidelines, p.7), so the seventeen year old kid who made a mistake with a younger teen, that committed an offense (24) years ago, was adjudicated a youthful offender (I.e. sentence imposed but no conviction) will now face registration if he is arrested for ANY new charge, even a traffic offense.

(Directly from the Final Guidelines, p.46: Example 3: A sex offender convicted in 1980 for an offense subject to lifetime registration under SORNA is released from imprisonment in 1990 but is not required to register at the time because the jurisdiction had not yet established a sex offender registration program. In 2010, following the jurisdiction’s implementation of SORNA, the sex offender reenters the system because of conviction for a robbery. The jurisdiction will need to require the sex offender to register based on his 1980 conviction for a sex offense when he is released from imprisonment for the robbery offense.

SORNA does away with the risk-based Tier systems like the ones in place in New Jersey, which work. Interestingly, many offenders in New Jersey are tiered in the “low-risk” tier, and the N.J. Courts have found that re-tiering a person without a hearing violates due process rights.

In its place, the conviction-based tiers will let the child predator with a good lawyer who got a great plea-deal off on low-risk Tier I, while many defendants who have took a chance at trial, but were not a big risk, look like monsters.

well earth, i have a question for you. do we as individuals have rights too? i have a friend , who has been incarcerated for 5 1/2 months he is labeled sex offender there had been an issue at my home that involved the taking of items (which were mine) the police were called, stated it was a civil issue for us to return the items. we did. noone was arrested we thought that was the end of it. well 4 months later my friend is arrested no one else even though there were 3 others involved finally that was presented to state attorney hey dismissed the case he is still in jail, what the deal is they were prejudice in this action . because of all this my friend s’ business has dwindled down to nothing not the mention his reputation as business owner his credibility, respect, trust, and reputation if people only knew how how hard it is to obtain such things. tell me is there any action we can take to recover the final loss we have been effected by such prejudice? i’m sure this may be unprecedented in such manner, but could you give some advice on it. there is no one in this state that will assist with any actions thank-you for your time