ACLU of Delaware sues over sex offender GPS law

The American Civil Liberties Union of Delaware has filed a lawsuit challenging a state law that requires certain sex offenders on probation wear a GPS monitor and pay a daily charge.

The requirement was enacted in 2007 for high-risk sex offenders, categorized as Tier III.

The ACLU said in the suit the rule is unconstitutional because it is being applied to those convicted of crimes that happened before 2007.

The suit, filed this week against Department of Correction Commissioner Robert Coupe, is being brought on behalf of three sex offenders whose identities are being kept confidential with court approval.

All three were convicted of offenses before the 2007 law was enacted, the ACLU said.

One of the sex offenders was convicted of raping, sodomizing and robbing a 21-year-old woman decades ago in an undisclosed state, the suit said.

She was incarcerated from 1991 to 2010, before the governor of that state gave her executive clemency.

The woman, who will be on probation until 2041, recently moved to Delaware to be closer to family and had to register in the state as a sex offender.

The woman, a mother of three children who is working toward a master's degree, must wear a 5-pound GPS monitor around her ankle.

The suit said the monitor causes soreness and bruising around her ankle and costs $144.52 per month.

"The plaintiffs in this suit and many others in the state are being forced to wear and pay for GPS monitors even though it has never been determined that monitoring them increases public safety," said ACLU-DE Legal Director Richard H. Morse in a statement.

A spokesman for the Department of Correction declined to comment. He said officials are reviewing the lawsuit.

Contact Jessica Masulli Reyes at 302-324-2777, jmreyes@delawareonline.com or Twitter @JessicaMasulli.