Professor Catherine Carpenter (Southwestern Law School), a nationally renowned criminal law scholar in the area of sex crimes and sex offender registration laws, came to St. Francis College on September 26 to talk about The Unconstitutionality of Sex Offense Laws.
Watch Catherine Carpenter on Sex Offender Laws
Her scholarship has been cited by numerous courts and used as a guide by attorneys; she is also one of the foremost authorities on law school curricula and accreditation. Among her important law review articles is, “Against Juvenile Sex Offender Registration.”
The lecture was organized by St. Francis College Professors Emily Horowitz and Athena Devlin as part of the Fall 2017 Senior Citizen Lecture Series: Perspectives on American Politics & Policies.
Excellent video!
Professor Carpenter delivers an amazingly heartfelt yet honest approach to the registry, how we think about it and its place in our society. It’s people like her who give me hope.
Thank you Professor – keep up the good fight. I loved your story about leadership… you’ve given me alot to think about.
Beautiful. She said sometime the US Supreme Court will hear the argument weather or not the registration is punishment. If it is, then it is unconstitutional.
An excellent video, and hopefully she will affect enough people, and the right people, to turn things around and get these laws stamped out in the courts. Policies won’t change though. The politicians won’t remove or lessen these laws since that is political suicide and their opponents would jump all over it.
As has been the case with most major tides turning(Like Brown V Board of Education), it starts in the courts to set the example and get the conversation out there and give the politicians the excuse they need to do the right thing.
I just wish all of those involved in this fight from the legal side would join up and provide other lawyers the resources and knowledge to properly fight these cases. You think it’s bad when a pro-se (no lawyer) lawsuit gets filed and argued poorly and sets precedent, but much of the time it’s bad precedents set by lawyers that just didn’t know how to properly fight, or didn’t have the drive to do it correctly.
I am thankful that Janice has always been very good about sharing her knowledge and briefs to anyone that asks. I just wish there was some national repository of good legal advise and cases and statistics to reference so that each lawyer isn’t re-inventing the wheel on each case they try to file. I lack the time, funding, and legal background to attempt this myself, so I’ll just keep doing what I can by offering up what I’ve learned when I see someone with a question or situation on here that I think I can help with.
God bless this woman. This made me drop a few tears to realize that there are some people in the world that realize not all of us are predators waiting on your children to walk down the street. We just want normal lives.
I just don’t want my life to be so hard anymore. I don’t deserve this shit. I never hurt anyone nor intended to. Actually now I am bawling my eyes out. I’m not even a man anymore. I was a Marine. I was a policeman. And now I am nothing but a piece of filth. I used to be so admired by everyone that knew me. I was important. And now I live in a shack and sleep in the floor. I don’t even have a bed. I would like to say I’m sorry, but I’ve said it more than enough the ten years, and I’m sick of it. I won’t say I’m sorry anymore because the price I have paid in my life FAR exceeds what I have to go through every day because I clicked on some photos of 16 year old Russian girls that were paid to pose nude.
I thank you, Janice. You have a purpose in life and it’s a very real purpose. I’m sitting here as a large, manly, capable man crying my eyes out because someone actually cares about this. Everyone hates me and I don’t deserve that. I’m still the same honest man I’ve always been and to be treated like scum has really ruined my life in more ways than you could ever imagine. I just want to be normal, Janice. If you can help me do this, I will do anything. I will come mow your lawn or wash your dishes. I just want to be normal.
Thank you so much. We all appreciate your love and what you are doing.
1984 14898 Cabot Trail, Cheticamp, Nova Scotia B0E1H0
Dear Mrs. Catherine Carpenter,
I just watched your video on Hope. I am greatly impressed! I think you are a wonderful person. I am not on the sex offender registry. However, in 1996, a criminal started to call young girls, 13 years old and maybe younger, using my identity. These calls have continued until 2018. At least 70 young girls have been contacted by an imposter claiming to be me. I have been a victim of all kinds of abuse. The scariest was a very serious death threat which I received from the same criminal who has stolen my identity. For three years, I woke up every morning expecting to be murdered; the threat came with an example of a fellow citizen who had been murdered. In 1996, I joined an environmental groups against the development of a gold mine in the Jim Campbell Barren. This is when my conflict began with Organized Crime.
I will not go into detail about all the abuse I have suffered. I would like to make some comments: 1. The RCMP have an unofficial registry for suspects. This comes with public notifications and all the harassment that goes with it. 2. People are being secretly implanted with Radio Frequency Identification Tags, better known as Micro Chips, the same kind that are put in dogs. These are tracking devices used to stalk the victims 24/7. 3. Global Position Devices are secretly installed in the suspects’ automobiles, also for tracking purposes. 4. Fifteen percent of the Canadian population is working as the ears and the eyes of the State, as smear mongers, snitches, spies and stalkers. Why is this kept secret? For many reasons. For one thing, the vigilantes sign Non-Disclosure Agreements promising never to tell the truth. They are told that they are following people considered dangerous and that they are protecting the welfare of children. They operate as community policing groups. They have the full support of the police and the government. Everything is done in secret. Victims are committing suicide. In some cases, the victims of harassment are committing mass murder. For example, what happened in Moncton, N.B. Justin Bourque ( I am not trying to defend him, I think what he did was a great hindrance to our cause ) considered himself a freedom fighter and he thought that what the did would open up a debate about how the police are harassing law abiding citizens.
You are an angel. I am greatly impressed! Continue the good work! We must expose what is happening. We know that cockroaches do not like the light! The majority of people are not bad; it is just that they are misinformed.
Sincerely, David Boudreau 902-224-2826