Santos v. State, 284 Ga. 514

Summary

The Supreme Court of Georgia held that Georgia's sex offender registration statute, OCGA § 42-1-12, was unconstitutionally vague as applied to homeless sex offenders who lacked a street or route address. The court reversed the denial of William Santos's motion to quash the indictment, while clarifying that homeless offenders remained subject to other registration requirements.

Holdings

1. OCGA § 42-1-12 is unconstitutionally vague as applied to homeless sexual offenders who possess no street or route address for their residence because it does not provide fair notice of how they can comply with the address-registration requirement.
2. The ruling invalidates only the address-registration requirement as applied to homeless sexual offenders who lack a street or route address; it does not exempt those offenders from reporting other required information or offenders who can provide a qualifying street or route address.

Questions Presented

1. Whether OCGA § 42-1-12's address-registration requirement is unconstitutionally vague as applied to a homeless sex offender who lacks a street or route address.
2. Whether the statute provides fair notice and sufficiently definite enforcement standards concerning what information a homeless offender without a street or route address must report.

Disposition

reversed