Legal News

Halloween & the Law: Targeting Sexual Offenders

By Dan Slater

(AP Photo/Tom Stromme)

Missouri has joined Illinois, Louisiana and some other states in passing laws that restrict sexual offenders’ activities on Halloween.

But according to a ruling yesterday by U.S. District Jude Carol Jackson, Missouri sex offenders won’t have to comply with parts of a new state law. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that Judge Jackson temporarily struck down two provisions as unconstitutionally vague: a ban on “Halloween-related contact” with children and a requirement to stay inside from 5-10:30 p.m. “unless required to be elsewhere for just cause.” (Click here for the law.)

Apparently, Judge Jackson was concerned that in some cases, parents could be punished for Halloween activities with their own children, such as “carving a pumpkin in the privacy of your kitchen with your 5-year-old child.” She questioned whether such parents might have to send their kids away on Halloween to avoid prosecution. “It’s not too much to expect criminal laws to be clear,” she said.

The ruling came after four convicted sexual offenders sued this month, represented by the ACLU of Eastern Missouri. Their lawyer, Anthony E. Rothert, told the NYT: “Once people have completed their sentences, you can’t go back and punish them for the same crime.”

A spokesman for the Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon’s office said the state will appeal.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on October 28, 2008 (boomark / email).