Constitutional: Retrospective Law – Sex Offender – Appellate Review

Where a sex offender argued that a law forbidding sex offenders from knowingly being within 500 feet of a public park or pool was an unconstitutional, retrospective law as applied to him because he was convicted in 1983 and the statute was enacted in 2009, the trial court’s dismissal of the felony complaint against the defendant is affirmed because the state failed to preserve for appeal its argument that the prohibition against retrospective laws applies only to civil, not criminal, statutes.

Judgment is affirmed.

State v. Davis (MLW No. 62700/Case No. SC91368 – 5 pages) (Supreme Court of Missouri, Breckenridge, J.; Teitelman, C.J., Russell, Fischer, Stith and Price, JJ., and Wolff, Sr. J., concur) Appealed from circuit court, Greene County, Brown, J. (Daniel N. McPherson, Jefferson City, for appellant) (Ruth K. Russell, Springfield, for respondent).

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