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Supreme Court, Bronx County, July 25, 2006
APPEARANCES OF COUNSEL
Legal Aid Society, New York City (Mitchell J. Briskey of counsel), for Eliezer Cintron, defendant. Pierre Sussman, Bronx, for Nelson Cordero and Dwayne Glover, defendants. Angel Perez, Tarrytown, for Marko Ivesic, defendant. Office of the Appellate Defender, New York City (Margaret E. Knight of counsel), for Francis Jackson, defendant. Robert T. Johnson, District Attorney, Bronx (Jill Starishevsky of counsel), for plaintiff.
OPINION OF THE COURT
Megan Tallmer, J.
The above-captioned cases are joined together for decision. The five named petitioners seek to be relieved of the obligation to register as sex offenders pursuant to the Sex Offender Registration
Act[FN1] (hereinafter referred to as SORA). Each petitioner claims that SORA is unconstitutional as applied to him.[FN2] The People oppose petitioners' applications for exemption from the registration requirements of SORA. The New York State Attorney General's office was notified of the Jackson and Cintron motions and declined to take a position.
The Facts
Eliezer Cintron was convicted of criminal possession of cocaine, unlawful imprisonment, endangering the welfare of a child and misdemeanor assault. He kept his girlfriend and her two children prisoners in her apartment. Although no sexual behavior was alleged, unlawful
imprisonment of a child by a nonparent is one of the crimes subject to SORA.[FN3]
Nelson Cordero was convicted of burglary in the first degree and unlawful imprisonment in the second degree. He broke into the home of his former common-law wife. After forcing his son and another 15-year-old boy into the bathroom, Cordero tied up the 15-year-old boy with wire rope. There was no allegation that the boy was harmed sexually in any way, but Cordero is considered a "sex offender" for SORA purposes. [*2]
Dwayne Glover was convicted of attempted murder in the second degree, robbery in the first degree and unlawful imprisonment in the first degree. He entered an apartment armed with a loaded gun and imprisoned the occupants for about seven hours. Present in the apartment were two women, a 12-year-old girl and a six-year-old boy. Glover directed all of them to lie on the bedroom floor. No sexual contact was alleged but unlawful imprisonment of a minor by a nonparent requires registration under SORA.
Marko Ivesic pleaded guilty to kidnapping in the second degree and unlawful imprisonment in the first degree. He broke into the home of his brother-in-law, with whom his estranged wife was living. When Ivesic's wife, her sister and three children arrived home, he pointed a loaded shotgun at them, handcuffed his wife and made her lie face down on the floor. He told her that he intended to kill the entire family. He also pointed the shotgun at his brother-in-law and his niece. Ivesic had no sexual contact with any of the seven people he held at gunpoint, but both kidnapping in the
second degree[FN4] and unlawful imprisonment of a minor by a nonparent require registration under SORA.
Francis Jackson was convicted of promoting prostitution in the second degree and attempted kidnapping in the second degree. Jackson and his girlfriend forced two women to engage in prostitution over the course of several days. He kidnapped the son of one of the women to compel her to continue prostituting herself. There was no claim that Jackson either perpetrated or intended to commit any kind of sexual misconduct upon the child. However, attempted kidnapping in the second degree of a child by a nonparent is included in SORA's definition of "sex offense."
The Law

A. The Jacob Wetterling Act
In 1989, Jacob Wetterling, an 11-year-old boy, was riding his bike home with his brother Trevor and a friend named Aaron. A masked man with a gun approached and ordered the boys to lie face down on the ground. The man asked each of the boys their age. After they responded, the man told Trevor and Aaron to run into the woods and not look back or they would be shot. When Aaron and Trevor glanced back, they saw the masked man grab Jacob's arm. Once they reached the wooded area, they turned to find that Jacob and the man were gone. Jacob Wetterling has never been found.
In response to their son's kidnapping, Jacob's parents formed the Jacob Wetterling Foundation, an advocacy group for children's safety. The Foundation's mission, stated on its Web site,[FN5] is to
protect children from sexual exploitation and abduction. In 1994, the Wetterlings, along with other interested individuals and groups, successfully lobbied Congress to pass what is commonly known as "the Jacob Wetterling Act" (hereinafter referred to as JWA).[FN6] [*3]
The objectives of JWA are set out in a report of the Committee on the Judiciary to the House of Representatives:
"To address crimes of violence and molestation . . . against children in the United States,
H.R. 324 requires the Attorney General to establish guidelines for State programs that require any person convicted of such crimes to register a current address with a designated State law enforcement agency for ten years after release from prison or being placed on parole, supervised release or probation. The bill sets forth requirements to an approved State registration program. . . .
"Each State has three years from the date of enactment to comply with the guidelines established by the Attorney General. The allocation of [federal] funds . . . received by a State not in compliance with such guidelines within that time period may be reduced by ten percent, and those unallocated funds reallocated to the States in compliance with the guidelines. . . .
"The Committee believes that protection of children from violence and sex offenses falls clearly within the Federal government's purview in protecting the health, safety and welfare of its citizens. The guidelines created in this bill serve a legitimate Federal governmental purpose." (HR Rep No. 103-392, 103rd Cong, 1st Sess, reprinted in 1993 WL 484758.)
JWA requires every state to adopt a registration program for sexual predators, sexually violent offenders and persons convicted of a criminal offense against a minor. "[C]riminal offense against a victim who is a minor" is defined to mean any offense specified by state law comparable to kidnapping or false imprisonment of a minor, other than by a parent. (42 USC

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