On those grounds, the judge said, the notification could be viewed as unconstitutional punishment added after he had served his maximum prison term.

Community notification, they argued, was ostracizing and a measure of retribution and thus unconstitutional extra punishment.

He said he did not regard the community notification provisions as unconstitutional extra punishment.

The state declared capital punishment unconstitutional in 1977, after 614 convicted murderers were put to death in New York.

The petitioners claimed that in the absence of a conviction, subjecting incarcerated defendants automatically to the same conditions as convicted felons was unconstitutional punishment.

How many deliberate and intentional reapplications of electric current does it take to produce a cruel, unusual and unconstitutional punishment?

The appellants, who were convicted before the "Megan's Laws" took effect, had asserted that the notice requirements were an unconstitutional, added punishment.

Also last Thursday, the Court ruled that a mandatory, no-parole life sentence for possessing small amounts of cocaine was not unconstitutional cruel and unusual punishment.

The New Jersey law has been challenged in the courts as an unconstitutional additional punishment and a denial of due process.