Year: 2017

Blind Injustice: How ‘Tunnel Vision’ Convicts the Innocent

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[thecrimereport.org] In 1991, soon after he was sentenced to 56 years in an Ohio prison for a crime he did not commit, Roger Dean Gillispie began pestering fellow inmates to save the tinfoil from their tobacco pouches. He also gathered discarded teabags and cassette tapes—anything he could get his hands on to serve as makeshift building materials. Then each evening, after he returned to his cell from one of his prison jobs, he devoted countless hours to creating a model of a shiny, vintage Airstream camper. It was, for him,…

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The Sex Offender Registry Leaves Female Sex Offenders Open to Abuse

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The plight of registered female sex offenders could be a hard sell to some. Like males who offend, they can and do cause extreme physical and emotional damage to their victims. In addition to prison time, they can also be subject to a long list of lifetime restrictions such as where they can live and work as well as being listed, often publicly, on their state’s sex offender registry. The reason for these post-sentence restrictions come under the guise of public safety, but a growing number of critics are disputing…

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Senate passes Schumer-backed bill to open FBI sex offender database

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[syracuse.com] The operators of summer camps, daycare centers and volunteer groups that work with children are a step closer to gaining access to an FBI sex offender database that could be used for background checks on prospective employees and volunteers. The U.S. Senate passed a bill backed by U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer that would close a loophole in the background check system and authorize the FBI to provide the information to organizations that work with children. Read more  

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VA: Virginia pulls 132 confined sex offenders from list of eligible voters

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[Washington Post] State officials abruptly removed 132 sex offenders from Virginia’s list of eligible voters last week, reacting to the latest problem emerging from Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s sweeping move to restore voting rights to felons who had served out their sentences. A spokesman for McAuliffe (D) said that the offenders, who are confined in a treatment facility under a form of civil commitment, had appeared on the list of eligible voters by mistake.   Read more  

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VA: Gillespie ad blasting McAuliffe rights restoration policy as soft on sex offenders draws outrage from Democrats

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A marquee policy initiative of Gov. Terry McAuliffe took center stage in the Virginia governor’s race Monday as Republican Ed Gillespie attacked McAuliffe’s approach to felon rights restoration as charitable to the point of being dangerous and Democrat Ralph Northam pushed back by saying Gillespie should be “ashamed” over his “fearmongering campaign.” The Gillespie campaign rolled out an ad Monday highlighting the case of a sex offender whose rights were restored late last year, months after he was arrested for having a massive child pornography stash. Gillespie said the case…

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FL: More school districts blame sexual abuse victims

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[sun-sentinel.com] Despite denying it, Broward and Miami-Dade school districts both have blamed schoolchildren for their own sexual abuse. The Sun Sentinel this week uncovered lawsuits in which the districts claimed children — from ages 8 to 14 — were wholly or partly responsible for what happened to them. The discovery came a week after Palm Beach County Schools came under fire for the same practice, after reports in the Sun Sentinel. In at least five sexual abuse lawsuits, involving children as young as 6, Palm Beach County Schools said students’…

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Senate passes Schumer-backed bill to open FBI sex offender database

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WASHINGTON — The operators of summer camps, daycare centers and volunteer groups that work with children are a step closer to gaining access to an FBI sex offender database that could be used for background checks on prospective employees and volunteers. The U.S. Senate passed a bill backed by U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer that would close a loophole in the background check system and authorize the FBI to provide the information to organizations that work with children. Full Article

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MN: ‘I Was Willing to Do Everything’: Mothers Defend Sons Accused of Sexual Assault

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[New York Times] Four women met late last month at a restaurant in a Twin Cities suburb, where they spoke for hours, so intently their waiter had trouble getting their drink orders. Each had a son who had been accused at college of sexual assault. One was expelled and another suspended. The other two were cleared, yet one had contemplated suicide and the other was so crushed he had not returned to school. The women had been meeting regularly to share notes and commiserate. Now, over red wine in a…

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IA: Iowa’s High Court Rules That Despite Appeals, Sex Offenders Must Register

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[iowapublicradio.org] People convicted of sex crimes are still required to register as sex offenders in Iowa even if they’re appealing their convictions, according to today’s ruling by the Iowa Supreme Court. The case centers on the appeal of Brian James Maxwell, who was hired as a youth coordinator for two churches in the Winterset area in March 2014. That month he inappropriately touched a 16-year-old girl who he met through this job. The next year Maxwell was convicted of lascivious conduct with a minor and sentenced to a year incarceration.…

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Why some travelers will need a passport card for 2018

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[yahoo.com] Everyone knows that you need a boarding pass and driver’s license to pass airport security. It’s always been this way, but next year, some travelers may also need a passport card. Starting on Jan. 22, 2018, travelers from a handful of states may have to show an alternate ID to Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agents at the airport. This is because the REAL ID Act, which was passed by Congress in 2005, will go into effect. Essentially, this act established minimum security standards for state-issued driver’s licenses (and ID…

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FL: Month After Irma, Sex Offenders Haven’t Left

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[miaminewtimes.com] Beneath a shredded blue tarp, 58-year-old Claudia Baker takes a swig of A&W root beer. “Imagine your faucet dripping at night. That’s what life is like for us—except instead of just hearing the drip, we feel it,” she says. After serving nine years in prison for child pornography, Baker now lives at an encampment of sex offenders near the train tracks near Hialeah. There, residents sleep on wet cots, endure massive storm floods and openly defecate behind a storage container. Nearby business owners say they’ve scared away customers. “My…

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The only thing we have to fear on Halloween is fear itself

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[timesledger.com] “Trick or treat, trick or treat, give us something lethal to eat!” That’s not the actual rhyme, but from all the warnings about Halloween you just might think it was. Even the American Academy of Pediatrics is still insisting that “a responsible adult should closely examine all treats.” But why? How many decades of disproving this murderous myth do America’s doctors require before they lay it to rest? Joel Best, a sociologist at the University of Delaware, first put a stake through the poison candy rumor all the way…

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