Court rules Maricopa County mugshot postings unconstitutional

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last week that the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office’s (MCSO) practice of posting mugshots of arrestees on the internet is unconstitutional.

For three days after a person is arrested, the MCSO posts their mugshot on a public website, even if the person is never charged. The argument provided by the court cited that other entities and websites have access to the photos and can post them as well, keeping the mugshot on the internet even after the arrestee is released.

Stephen Montoya, an attorney from Montoya, Lucero and Pastor, discussed the ruling on “Arizona Horizon.”

“The Eighth Amendment prohibits cruel and unusual punishment. I guess the archetype of cruel punishment would be to punish someone before they’ve been adjudicated guilty. Punishment can include public shaming. That is a very ancient form of punishment. That is what was happening in this case unfortunately,” Montoya said.

“Under the administration of the former Sheriff of Maricopa County Joseph Arpaio, mugshots of everyone arrested were put on a website and kept there for three days available for the public, available for other entities to copy and disperse however they pleased,” Montoya said.

“Many of those individuals, thousands of those individuals, were never formally charged with a crime, were never convicted of a crime. Some of them were completely exonerated by law enforcement agencies before they were even charged,” Montoya said.

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals voted unanimously on Monday that the release of these mugshots violated the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment.