Complicated legal procedures affect sex offender registration

We’re all at least vaguely familiar with how Megan’s Law works: get convicted of a certain sexual crime, serve your time, then register under the law to let people know where you — a past offender — live.

But every law has caveats, as NewsWorks partner Philadelphia Weekly explores.

Tara Murtha review the case of 15-year-old Derrick Cook, sentenced to jail for violently attacking his neighbor in 2008, who will not have to register as a sexually violent predator when he’s released in 20 to 45 years.

 

Murtha spoke with Cook’s victims and her lawyers about the SVP classification and the special circumstances surrounding it that will prevent Cook from having to register.