STATE OF NEW JERSEY VS. F.W.
A-1635-13T3 We affirmed defendant's conviction for fourth-degree violating Community Supervision for Life (CSL), a provision that existed at the time defendant committed the sex offenses for which he was sentenced to CSL. Because defendant committed the sex offenses before the Sex Offender Monitoring Act (SOMA) was enacted, the Ex Post Facto Clause barred defendant's prosecution for third-degree SOMA crimes. We did not decide defendant's alternate argument that imposing GPS monitoring for life was so punitive as to violate the Ex Post Facto Clause in his case.
We noted that the CSL statute appears to authorize GPS monitoring as a means of enforcing CSL under appropriate circumstances, including where an offender violates the terms of his CSL. The Parole Board has adopted regulations which provide for GPS monitoring of CSL offenders under defined circumstances and limited time frames, and give offenders a due process right to challenge the monitoring requirement. Nothing in our opinion would preclude the Board from applying those regulations to defendant now that he has been released from prison.
