California sex offender law retroactive

SACRAMENTO, Feb. 1 (UPI) -- The California Supreme Court in a 5-2 ruling says residency restrictions in Jessica's Law can be applied retroactively to sex offenders.

The law, or Proposition 83, was passed by 70 percent of state voters in 2006, and bars any registered sex offender from living within 2,000 feet of any school or park where children regularly gather, the Los Angeles Times said Monday.

The retroactive decision means those registered as sex offenders before the law was passed in 2006 are still affected by it.

The restrictions make it impossible for some sex offenders to live in a densely populated city -- San Francisco, for example, is literally all off-limits, the report said.

But the state high court decision also made it possible for sex offenders to challenge the law's restrictions when they are paroled to areas near parks and schools, the report said.

Jessica's Laws in the states are named after Jessica Lunsford, a 9-year-old Florida girl who was kidnapped from her home, raped and murdered in February 2005 by a previously convicted sex offender.

LITTLE GIRL LOVER