Anyone who is a registered sex offender may find that moving to another state can be complicated. There are federal regulations, normally codified in state statutes, to prevent people from “registry shopping”. Basically, they don’t want all the sex offenders to move to a handful of states just to get off the registry. Therefore, there is a uniform statute in Indiana, and in most states, that requires any person who is required to register in more than one state, to register for the period of time required by whichever jurisdiction is longer. For example, if you live in Indiana and work in Illinois you will need to register by the terms of whichever state requires a longer registration period. If the offense is a 10-year registry in Indiana but a lifetime in Illinois, the person would be required to register for life even in Indiana. These changes are extremely important to know for anyone wanting to move states who is currently on the sex offender registry.
There has been an important change in the interpretation of this law recently. Indiana has always interpreted this law in a way that is best explained by another example. Let’s say you are convicted of an offense that requires you to register for 10 years in Indiana. Then, you move to Florida and Florida law requires you to register for life for the same offense. Because of that, you decide to move back to Indiana. It has always been the case that now you are a lifetime registrant in Indiana.
On June 19, 2025, the Supreme Court of Indiana issued a few opinions on cases all addressing this same issue. The crux of the argument was that the statute clearly says “a person who is required to register in any jurisdiction. . .” The argument made in the several cases before the court, with similar facts as the example about moving to Florida, was that once the person moves back to Indiana the person is not currently required to register in Florida. The statute uses the present tense “is” and not “was”, so the fact that they were required to register in Florida at one point should have not bearing on Indiana’s registration requirement.
The Court issued a few opinions on June 19th addressing multiple facets of this statute from a few different perspectives, but the result remains that this statute does not change someone’s Indiana registry requirements just because they temporarily availed themselves of a different jurisdiction. Many of our clients have dealt with this same issue and have found themselves put on the lifetime registry when they were originally set to be on a 10-year registry. Will you or a loved one benefit from this change in the law? If so, contact our office at 317-870-0019!
