In tomorrow's paper:

In a ruling that could affect some other sex-offender cases, a sharply divided Washington Supreme Court on Thursday said that a Vancouver man was wrongly committed as a sexually violent predator.

Several dissenters on the court agreed that there was a technical mistake in the case, but said it didn't merit freeing the man.

The court challenge came from Sheldon Martin, a kidnapper and sex offender arrested in 1992 in Portland, Ore. and sentenced to a year in prison. He was also sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison for a Vancouver, Wash. burglary and indecent exposure. Only the Oregon crimes fall under Washington's sexually violent predator law, which allows the state to continue to hold dangerous predators even after they've served their sentences.

Court opinion: click here.

Dissent: click here.

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