By Steve Bell
Kansas City, MO – Attorney Arthur Benson, who won a Missouri Supreme Court decision saying sex offenders convicted before the sex offender registry was created can't be required to register says he is watching to see how the state reacts to the decision.
The court ruled that though the state can't force an offender to register retroactively, it can publish information about previous convictions or guilty pleas.
Kansas City attorney Arthur Benson, who represented 11 offenders convicted before the 1995 law was passed says he will demand that the state publish only their names. Benson says that's because the offenders were forced to provide things like pictures and personal information asb part of the registration retroactive process.
Benson:
"That's where the next fight is going to be, because since it's not proper for them to register, anything that they did provide when they registered should come down off those lists. And I believe that includes photos and home addresses and so forth."
Missouri Highway Patrol doesn't know how many of the 11,000 names on the state sex offender registry are affected.
In Kansas City's Jackson County, it would be 500 of the registry's 1400