Maryland man de-listed from sex-offender registry

ANNAPOLIS, Md., June 22 (UPI) -- A lawyer for a convicted child molester says it would be unfair for Maryland to contest the court-ordered removal of names from a sex-offender registry.

Robert Haines was quietly de-listed under a court order that said placing him on the registry was unconstitutional because he had been convicted before the registry existed.

Gov. Martin O'Malley and the head of the Maryland prison system faced a Sunday deadline for striking Haines from the registry or else face a potential contempt of court citation, attorney Nancy Forster told The Washington Post.

Haines was convicted of raping a 13-year-old student in 1983. The Maryland registry was not created until 1995.

The Post said the Maryland Court of Appeals recently ruled that requiring Haines to register as a sex offender after his conviction and sentencing amounted to double jeopardy because it involved a punishment that did not exist in the 1980s. As many as 1,800 offenders in Maryland are in similar circumstances and could also be de-listed.

State officials have vowed to litigate each individual case but Forster urged the state not to contest the matter.

"The state's highest court has spoken, and yet (the O'Malley administration) is going to force each individual to spend money on a lawyer," she said.

Prosecutors called the registry a preventive measure, but Forster said there were no such registries for people convicted of other heinous crimes, including murder.