After decades of tough-on-crime policies that swelled California prisons to the point that they had to be depopulated under a Supreme Court order, support has mounted for rethinking criminal punishment. Full Article
Read MoreYear: 2016
WI: Romeo and Juliet and Sexting – 17Year-Old Faces Child Porn, Assault Charges for Consensual Sex with Girlfriend
After being arrested, I was suicidal and hopeless,” ____ ____, a 17-year-old from Superior, Wisconsin, recalls. “As of right now, I am just hoping for the best and preparing for the worst.” The “worst” would be pretty bad. After discovering indecent photos of ____’s 15-year-old girlfriend on his cell phone—as well as a video of the couple having sex—authorities charged him with sexual assault of a child, sexual exploitation, and possession of child pornography. The sexual assault charge is considered a Class C felony, and carries a maximum (though unlikely)…
Read MorePetition Challenges State Department Regulation
A petition was filed today challenging a State Department regulation that attempts to implement the International Megan’s Law (IML). The petition states that the regulation, published on September 2, is defective for both substantive and procedural reasons. In addition, the petition requests that the regulation be significantly modified in order to comply with the IML which has also been challenged. According to the petition, the regulation is substantively defective for two reasons. First, the regulation denies passport cards to covered registrants. Second, the regulation improperly defines covered registrants as anyone convicted of an…
Read MoreWI: “If this is winning, I don’t want it”
On the morning of July 5th, a white van left Fox Lake Correctional Institution. In the back, ____ ____, a Milwaukee man with a history of sex crimes. As a young man in the late ’80s, he had sex with two teenage girls; in the mid-’90s, forceful sexual assaults on adult women. After 22 years in prison, he’s getting out, his time served. No one wants a sex offender like ____ ____ living next door to them, and it’s certainly understandable. Municipalities across the state have codified this with ordinances that restrict where…
Read MoreNew Zealand: Child sex offender register legislation passed
Legislation passed to establish first child sex offender register – Social Development Minister Anne Tolley says New Zealand’s first child sex offender register will soon get under way, following the passing of enabling legislation. Full Article Child Protection Bill
Read MoreFL: Sex Offender Fights Removal From Hospice
A Florida city’s sex-offender law faces scrutiny in litigation over whether a wheelchair-bound former doctor, convicted of patient abuse in the 1980s, should be forced out of a hospice due to its proximity to a school. A Palm Beach County court petition filed Aug. 31 claims ____ ____, a hospice patient with end-stage Alzheimer’s disease, has been threatened with arrest if he does not move out of Heartland of Boynton Beach, a nursing home near a local preschool. The City of Boynton Beach purportedly issued a notice to ____ and the…
Read MoreNC: New law bans sex offenders from fairs
Friday, the Cabarrus County fair celebrates it’s opening night. The fair runs through September 17 featuring rides, fair foods, a petting zoo and exhibit hall. But one thing you shouldn’t see this year: registered sex offenders. Full Article
Read MoreSex offender registries face scrutiny after Turner’s release
When ex-Stanford University swimmer Brock Turner became a registered sex offender for life last Tuesday, he joined a nationwide list of registered sex criminals that has grown dramatically in recent years to more than 800,000. Even some who have denounced Turner’s six-month jail sentence as too lenient for sexually assaulting an unconscious woman question whether he should spend his life with the stigma and onerous restrictions of a registered sex offender. Full Article
Read MoreBrock Turner’s real sentence: A lifetime as a sex offender
The outpouring against Judge Aaron Persky’s lenient six-month sentence of Stanford swimmer Brock Turner is symptomatic of a societal change — attitudes unsupported by realities. It’s the “I know what I feel and don’t bother me with any facts” refrain, and it’s scary. Full Article
Read MoreAZ: Supreme Court asked to reinstate no-bail law for some sex offenses
Prosecutors are asking the Arizona Supreme Court to reinstate a law that allows some people accused of sexual abuse of minors to be held without bail. Deputy Maricopa County Attorney David Cole said the constitutional provision limiting access to bail was adopted by voters in 2002. He said the state Court of Appeals, in overturning the law enacted by lawmakers to implement that amendment, failed to give “due consideration to the overwhelming will of the people.” Full Article
Read MoreAfter Jacob, work harder to prevent child sexual abuse [Commentary]
This week, the nation finally learned the truth of the kidnapping, sexual assault and murder of Jacob Wetterling at the hands of ____ ____ (“Jacob’s killer gives detailed confession,” Sept 7). Upon hearing the harrowing details, we wept, knowing Jacob’s final moments were filled with fear, pain and pleading. We learned that the man who killed Jacob had previously kidnapped and assaulted another boy, Jared Scheierl. We raged, knowing that for 27 years ____ enjoyed a freedom he did not deserve and, we hope, will never again possess. Full Commentary
Read MoreMA: Judge says sex offender’s right to due process trumps public safety
In a recent ruling, a Superior Court judge said that concerns for public safety cannot trump a sex offender’s right to due process, FOX25 Investigates has learned. On Aug. 16, Salem Superior Court judge Timothy Feeley, found the Sex Offender Registry Board violated one sex offender’s constitutional right to due process. His status as a level two sex offender was published on the internet on the same day he was classified, before he could file an appeal. Full Article
Read MoreGet angry about crime. But don’t use it as a reason to pass bad laws.
Two seemingly unrelated cases in the news this week share a troubling link. ____ ____, the infamous former Stanford student who was convicted of sexual assault of an unconscious woman, was released from jail after three months last Friday, reviving outrage over his months-long sentence. Just days later, the Jacob Wetterling case — in which a young Minnesota boy was abducted, assaulted, and murdered 27 years ago — came to a close, as his long-suspected murderer confessed to the crime. Full Article
Read MoreBig headlines make bad laws (Opinion)
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 MoreCDCR 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
Read MoreAZ: Homeless sex offenders still face 72-hour reporting despite 2006 rule change
PHOENIX – A court ruling says an Arizona law intended to make it practical for homeless people to register as sex offenders only goes so far. Full Article
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