New Jersey's highest court has ruled a portion of Megan's Law unconstitutional because it requires juveniles to remain listed on the state's sex offender registry for life.
The unanimous Supreme Court decision found placing such a lifetime requirement on child offenders violated their due process rights under the state constitution.
"Indeed, categorical lifetime notification and registration requirements may impede a juvenile's rehabilitative efforts and stunt his ability to become a healthy and integrated adult member of society," Justice Barry Albin wrote in the decision.
The court reverted to an older requirement that allows juvenile sex offenders to apply to be removed from the registry after 15 years.
The ruling concerned a defendant identified only as C.K., who was convicted of sexually assaulting his adopted brother.
C.K. was 15 and his brother was seven at the time of the offense, which only came to light years later. Prosecutors wanted to try C.K. as an adult but he accepted a plea deal for aggravated sexual assault in juvenile court.
Megan's Law, landmark legislation creating the sex offender registry, was enacted in 1994. But a 2002 addition to bring New Jersey's version in line with federal law brought new, even more stringent punishments those convicted of certain sex offenses, including the lifetime registry requirement.
The court's decision still requires defendants to register as sex offenders, but allows an individual convicted as a juvenile to appeal to a judge who will hold a hearing to determine whether the defendant "has been offense-free and does not likely pose a societal risk" after 15 years.
C.K.'s attorney, James Maynard, said his client will be able to make such an application in November.
Maynard, who runs a Morristown practice dedicated to representing those convicted or accused of sex offenses, said in the decades since Megan's Law, legislators have ratcheted up punishments for sex offenders without acknowledging the problem is largely a mental health issue.
"It's good politics, but it's doing a great deal of harm to society," he said.
According to court papers, C.K. presented experts during his appeal who testified that C.K. was unlikely to reoffend and pointed to research showing that juveniles generally have a low recidivism rate for sex offenses.
His attorney told NJ Advance Media that the registration requirement had made it difficult for C.K. to travel, advance in his career and move past that chapter of his life.
The justices found the 2002 provision of Megan's Law that prevented C.K. from removing himself from the registry was based on an assumption that such juveniles "will forever pose a danger to society."
"Those juveniles are, in effect, branded as irredeemable -- at a point when their lives have barely begun and before their personalities are fully formed," Justice Albin wrote in the decision. "They must carry this stigma even if they can prove that they pose no societal threat."
A spokesperson for the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office, which argued the case for the state, did not respond to a message seeking comment. A spokesman for the state Attorney General's Office, which also argued in favor of maintaining the lifetime registry requirement, declined to comment on the decision.
S.P. Sullivan may be reached at ssullivan@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter. Find NJ.com on Facebook.