Terri Hackley McCabe v. Commonwealth of Virginia

Summary

The Supreme Court of Virginia affirmed dismissal of Terri Hackley McCabe's complaint challenging the retroactive application of enhanced sex-offender reregistration requirements. The court held that lifetime quarterly reregistration, subject to possible reduction, did not implicate a fundamental liberty interest, that no hearing was required because classification depended solely on the fact and nature of the prior conviction, and that the equal protection claim was moot.

Holdings

1. A convicted felon has no fundamental or specially protected liberty interest in being free from lifetime quarterly sex-offender reregistration, so the amended registration requirement does not violate substantive due process on that basis.
2. McCabe had no fundamental constitutional right to rely on the civil registration scheme in effect when she pleaded guilty and was convicted.
3. Procedural due process did not require a hearing before McCabe's offense was subject to the amended sexually violent offense classification because the classification depended solely on the fact and nature of her prior conviction, not on current dangerousness or recidivism.
4. McCabe's equal protection claim was moot because the current statute imposed the registration requirements on all persons convicted of listed offenses on or after July 1, 1994, eliminating the asserted distinction based on whether the conviction occurred before or after July 1, 1997.

Questions Presented

1. Whether applying the amended sex-offender classification and lifetime quarterly reregistration requirement to McCabe violated substantive due process.
2. Whether the automatic reclassification of McCabe's prior conviction without a hearing violated procedural due process.
3. Whether the statutory treatment of convictions under Code § 18.2-370.1 violated equal protection based on the timing of the convictions.

Disposition

affirmed