I’m not sure I’ve ever seen anything quite like it. On Friday the Kansas Supreme Court issued decisions in three cases — State v. Buser, State v. Redmond and Doe v. Thompson — holding that Kansas’s Offender Registration Act, requiring anyone previously convicted of various violent felonies, drug crimes or sex offenses to register with state authorities, cannot be constitutionally applied to people whose underlying felony convictions occurred before enactment of the registration statute in 2011. Full Op-Ed Piece Related KS: Sex offenders win and lose in unusual rulings by…
Read MoreDay: April 25, 2016
NJ: Is it time to revisit and revamp Megan’s Law in NJ?
A peculiar thing — actually, two —happened on the way to banning New Jersey sex offenders from social media sites. First, the proposal was scaled back over concerns it wasn’t legal. Then, lawmakers heard from a lawyer whose practice is focused on Megan’s Law cases who says New Jersey law in this area is misdirected and merits a top-to-bottom re-evaluation by a task force to make sure it’s effective. Full Article
Read MorePA: A wide-ranging look at sex offender registration in PA and beyond
The Cumberland County (Pennsylvania) Sentinel recently published a series of articles by Joshua Vaughn that examine the operation and effect of sex offender registration laws from a variety of perspectives. We summarize the articles with links to the Sentinel’s website. Full Article
Read MoreVT: High court orders re-evaluation of sex offender’s conditions
MONTPELIER — The Vermont Supreme Court ruled Friday that some conditions placed on a convicted sex offender were overbroad and in some cases too restrictive because they weren’t specifically connected to his crime. Full Article
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