Reverend Jeffrey Stallworth won his fight to be removed from the Mississippi sex offender registry. The Mississippi Supreme Court reversed a lower court decision denying him the relief. Reverend Stallworth pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor count of sexual offense in the fourth degree in Maryland in 2002. He had to register as a sex offender. A Prince George County Court (Maryland) expunged his conviction in 2010. However, a Hinds County court refused to remove him from the registry.
The Mississippi Supreme Court stated:
Under Mississippi law, an expungement removes “all records relating to an arrest, indictment, trial, and finding of guilt, in order to restore one to the status occupied prior thereto . . . .” At the moment Stallworth’s Maryland conviction was expunged, the law provides that he was restored to the status he had occupied before he was convicted, which means that—in the eyes of the law—he had no conviction. And before Stallworth was convicted, he had no duty to register as a sex offender.3 So if we are to follow the law and recognize that Stallworth has been returned to that status, then we must find that he has no present duty to register as a sex offender.
11 comments:
Judge Weill, playing God again.
Hey 3:17, you apparently did not notice that this case was decided by a 5-4 vote and was on its second round before the supremes. It is hard to imagine a more razor thin, close call case than this one. No one could accuse the trial judge of playing God under any reasonable circumstance.
The State of Mississippi did not object to Stallworth's trial court petition. Weill was incensed and made a POLITICAL DECISION not to give a sex offender any benefit.
The dissents are boot-strapping political statements much like Weill engaged in.
Stallworth is a slime, but Maryland wiped out his conviction. Wanna be political, write a trial level opinion blaming in on the other state...
KF, since you are a well known buddy of Weill, why did you not disclose he was the judge that got overruled?
Jeff is having some tough sledding right now. He may be fine, but tensions are high.
Totally forgot. If I was trying to cover up his jurisdiction, I wouldn't have approved your comment. ;-)
Fair enough.
Weill is this era's Captain Queeg. He is driving the Caine Mutiny with marbles in his damaged hands...
what is it with the state of Maryland? First the OH bunch, and now giving a sex offender a pass. And Jackson gets stuck with both.
3:51. 4:32 nails it. Activist judges are intolerable regardless the stripes.
9:00 pm is right. We can't have activist judges EVER since we know our lawmakers never, ever pass bad laws! We don't need anyone to protect us from government!
7:22, so you want our judiciary legislating. By that logic our executive branch (e.g., police) can serve as our judge/jury and our legislature can enforce the laws created by our judges. You have a total lack of understanding of the separation of powers in our government. Perhaps you should spend your morning rereading your 5th grade civics book.
The Reverend should park Mr. Johnson in the garage.
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