New legislation is making its way through the Indiana General Assembly to create an online public registry for convicted child abusers. Indiana State Sen. Carlin Yoder authored the bill known as Kirk’s Law in honor of a 19-month-old boy who died under the care of his babysitter in Northern Indiana. The Senate unanimously passed the bill 49-0. It is currently in the House, recently referred to the Committee on Courts and Criminal Code. Full Article
Read MoreMonth: February 2016
Happy 20th Birthday, SORA, may you die soon.
Friends, New Yorkers, Countrypersons! Lend us your ears! We come not to praise SORA but to bury it. For the courts say its purpose is not to punish, but to protect public safety. And courts are honorable persons, otherwise they wouldn’t have “Hon.” in front of their names. SORA was enacted in 1996 to create a class of persons permanently labeled “sex offenders,” based on scientific proof that anyone who commits a sex offense is an incurable, murderous pedophile. Therefore, they have no constitutional right to be let alone even…
Read MoreSext Offenders
By Bill Maher – A school in Newtown, Connecticut is in the news, but this time not for a tragic shooting. At least not with a gun. Some kids at the high school there got to texting and Snapchatting each other naked pictures of themselves, as kids of that age will sometimes do, and some of the nudey photos got circulated, as pics of that type always seem to do. And now there’s been some arrests. Full Article
Read MoreOK: Hundreds of convicted sex offenders missing in Tulsa area
TULSA — According to Tulsa Police, there are hundreds of convicted sex offenders missing in the Tulsa area. However, just because they’re missing doesn’t mean they’re gone, said Sgt. John Adams with the Tulsa Police Department. … According to Adams, the places where a registered sex offender can live in Tulsa have been greatly restricted since 2006.During that year, Oklahoma lawmakers passed a 2,000 law, stating sex offenders can’t live within 2,000 feet of a school, park, or any place where children live or play. “2006 just turned our world…
Read MoreJanice’s Journal: Silver Linings to the Dark Cloud of the International Megan’s Law
International Megan’s Law is a terrible law. Its notification provisions trap registrants in a country that continues to punish them and its passport provisions expose them to significant risk of harm due to the addition of a “Scarlet letter”. Having said that, however, there is a silver lining to that dark cloud — our community came together and we acted in concert for the first time. We did this by attempting to prevent the International Megan’s Law from being passed by Congress and signed by the President. Hundreds of people…
Read MoreOH: House Passes Legislation To Require Mandatory Prison Sentences For Sex Offenders
The Ohio House of Representatives has pushed forward legislation that will require a mandatory prison sentence for sex offenders. House Bill 405 establishes a mandatory prison sentence for soliciting a child under 13 years old to engage in sexual activity. The bill also stipulates that if an offender is more than 10 years older than a victim, who is 13 to 16-years-old, the offender will receive a mandatory prison sentence. Full Article
Read MoreIML Lawsuit Media Articles (updated 2/19)
Added 2/19 http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/02/19/21st-century-public-shaming/ http://www.downtownexpress.com/2016/02/18/dont-brand-sex-offenders-passports/ http://www.sfweekly.com/sanfrancisco/news-sex-offenders-megans-law-obama/Content?oid=4486073 Added 2/12 https://nonprofitquarterly.org/2016/02/12/civil-rights-group-files-lawsuit-questioning-constitutionality-of-international-megans-law/ http://kron4.com/2016/02/10/sex-offenders-to-be-identified-federal-passports-law/ Added 2/11 https://pcjc.blogs.law.pace.edu/2016/02/11/international-megans-law-h-r-515-necessary-constitutional/ http://wemeantwell.com/blog/2016/02/11/u-s-passports-of-sex-offenders-to-be-marked/ http://nationalrsol.org/blog/2016/02/09/first-lawsuit-challenging-intl-megans-law-filed-in-ca-federal-court/ 2-10-16: International Megan’s Law Conference Call (National RSOL) https://www.ice.gov/news/releases/ice-authorized-create-angel-watch-center-expand-child-protection-efforts-following Added 2/10 http://reason.com/blog/2016/02/10/lawsuit-says-scarlet-letter-passports-fo http://www.courthousenews.com/CNSNEWS/Story/Index/86768 http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2016/02/09/civil-rights-group-opposes-law-identifying-sex-offenders-on-passports/ http://www.newsweek.com/civil-rights-group-sex-offender-passports-marking-state-department-424754 http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-sex-offender-passport-20160209-story.html http://fox40.com/2016/02/09/sex-offenders-challenge-new-federal-passports-law/ http://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2016/02/obama_signs_international_megans_law.html
Read MoreObama Just Signed a Really Bad Criminal Justice Law
Is this really the best Congress can do? – After months of hype about the historic bipartisan consensus that we must make the American criminal justice system less harsh, President Obama finally signed a justice reform bill into law Monday. There’s only one problem: Instead of making the justice system more fair and less punitive, the new law will make it more vindictive and petty. Specifically, it will require people who have been convicted of sex crimes against minors to carry special passports in which their status as registered sex…
Read MorePresident Signed HR 515, International Megan’s Law
President Obama signed HR 515 into law on February 8. The law will require federal agencies to notify destination countries that registered citizens are coming to visit as well as to require the Secretary of State to add a “unique identifier” to the passports of some registered citizens. “The President’s decision, if unchallenged, would require the Secretary of State to add a Scarlet Letter to the passports of hundreds of thousands of American citizens,” stated CA RSOL president Janice Bellucci. “Therefore a lawsuit has been prepared and will be filed on February 9 challenging…
Read MoreUT: Amendment to lower time on Sex Offender Registry on House floor
SALT LAKE CITY — Amendments to HB16 would allow those who have been charged with crimes like voyeurism or “enticing a minor” to be dropped from the Sex Offender Registry in five years instead of 10. “Almost everyone is the legislature knows someone in this situation and has been asked to please do something about it,” said Rep. Jack Draxler, R-North Logan. For the past five years, Draxler has been trying to make amendments to get sex offenders charged with lesser crimes off the list quicker than other sex offenders…
Read MoreSex offenders face obstacles from well-intended laws
I’ve been trying to help a sex offender I’ll call George to find a home plan in preparation for his release from prison in March. I’ve known this man for 10 years. His crimes are computer crimes and stupidity. Will he re-offend? Of course I don’t know. I do know it’s statistically unlikely that he would molest a child. But I don’t know. What I also know is that if he can find housing and a job, he has a much better chance of not re-offending and public safety will…
Read More7th Circuit OKs sex-offender GPS monitoring
Wisconsin lawmakers didn’t violate the U.S. Constitution when they mandated that anyone deemed to be a sexually violent person wear a GPS monitoring device following his or her release from civil commitment, a federal appeals court has held. The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last week upheld a state statute requiring such persons to wear a monitoring device for the rest of their lives. Full Article
Read MoreGeneral Comments February 2016
Comments that are not specific to a certain post should go here, for the month of February 2016. Contributions should relate to the cause and goals of this organization and please, keep it courteous and civil.
Read MoreHR 515 Articles (Collection – updated 2/8)
All articles about HR 515 in one place…
Read MoreCongress votes to stigmatize and surveil the travel of second-class US citizens
Can second-class US citizens be required to carry second-class US passports with a conspicuous stigmatizing “scarlet letter” label? Congress has now said yes. Do DHS pre-cogs have the omniscience and infallibility of angels at predicting and protecting the US and the world against future crimes? Congress has now said yes. Full Article
Read MoreObama Could Still Stop ‘Megan’s Law’ From Making Sex Offenders Get Special Passports
Both the U.S. House and Senate have signed off on a bill to brand registered sex offenders as such on their passports and require federal officials to notify foreign governments whenever certain offenders intend to travel there. The bill is now on its way to President Obama; it’s unclear whether he’ll sign. If he does, it will be “the first time in U.S. history that any such special designation will appear on the passports of any U.S. citizens,” writes lawyer and New America Foundation Senior Fellow David Post at The Volokh Conspiracy, “and I…
Read MoreCongress Acts to Mark Passports of Sex Offenders
Target of legislation is sex-traffickers; critics call it a ‘scarlet letter.’ Legislation requiring the State Department to identify registered sex offenders with a special mark on their passports received final passage in the House of Representatives on Monday night and went to President Obama’s desk. The White House has not indicated whether President Obama plans to sign the bill. Full Article
Read MoreJanice’s Journal: We Must Answer This Grave Injustice to the U.S. Constitution
It took six weeks. Only six weeks for Congress to make a historic decision without any discussion or debate about its significance. That decision is the addition of “unique identifiers” to the passports of U.S. citizens. This has never happened before in the history of our country and has only happened in Nazi Germany and Communist Russia. The U.S. Senate struck the first blow on December 17, 2015, when they adopted an amendment to H.R. 515, International Megan’s Law, under a “suspension of the rules” that significantly limited discussion and…
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