When horrific and ugly crimes make headlines, politicians like to seize the opportunity — to make their own headlines. So when Superior Court Judge Aaron Persky sentenced former Stanford student Brock Turner, now 21, to six months in jail — he served only three months — for sexually assaulting a woman who was too inebriated to consent to sex in 2015, California lawmakers did not hesitate. The same California Legislature that just passed the Restorative Justice Act, which touted alternatives to incarceration, shamelessly passed two tough-on-crime laws. Both are now…
Read MoreDay: September 8, 2016
CDCR Agrees to Drop Halloween Sign Requirement
The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) has agreed to permanently eliminate on a statewide basis its requirement that registrants post a sign on their residences on Halloween. This agreement is the result of a lawsuit filed in 2015 by California RSOL and two individual plaintiffs in San Diego and Los Angeles. “In the past, CDCR placed registrants they supervised and their loved ones in danger of significant harm, even death, by their requirement that registrants post a sign on their residence on Halloween,” stated ACSOL president Janice Bellucci.…
Read MoreMI: Sex offender laws and the 6th Circuit’s Ex Post Facto Clause ruling
The Volokh Conspiracy: I wanted to add a few words to co-blogger Jonathan Adler’s posting about the recent 6th Circuit decision in Doe v. Snyder, in which the court voided application of the Michigan Sex Offender Registration Act (SORA) on the grounds that it imposes retroactive punishment on previously convicted sex offenders in violation of the constitutional prohibition against Ex Post Facto laws. Full Editorial Related MI: Court voids state sex offender registry for imposing unconstitutionally retroactive punishment [UPDATED]
Read MoreCO: Three sex offenders lose round in court
U.S. District Judge Raymond Moore on Aug. 30 denied a motion for a temporary restraining order, meaning Englewood can continue to enforce its sex-offender residency restrictions for now. However, he did agree to hear evidence in a Sept. 28 court session on the request for a preliminary injunction that would halt enforcement of the residency restriction. Full Article
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