[theleafchronicle.com] A man who was shot to death in his home on Paradise Hill Road Tuesday night was a registered sex offender, and a friend of his daughter’s was arrested Wednesday and charged with his slaying. At about 10:23 p.m., Tuesday officers were called to 1232 Paradise Hill Road for a shooting in progress, according to a news release from Clarksville Police spokesman Jim Knoll. Officers found a 40-year-old man with multiple gunshot wounds. He was taken to Tennova Health Care, where he was pronounced dead. Read more
Read MoreMonth: February 2018
MI: Bohacek-authored sex offender bill passes house
[thenewsdispatch.com] INDIANAPOLIS — Senate Bill 12, authored by State Sen. Mike Bohacek, R-Michiana Shores, recently passed the House of Representatives by a vote of 91-0. SB 12 would make it unlawful for a sex offender to intentionally establish residence within one mile of their victim. According to a press release from Bohacek’s office, this law currently only applies to sex offenders whose victims are minors. SB 12 would extend the protection to all victims regardless of age. Read more
Read MoreNC: Tracking sex offenders is a large task that falls to a handful of people
Investigator J. Moore spends his days keeping tabs on the sex offenders living in Wake County. “When we go out, we just go door-to-door until we run out of time or we run out of people. And we never run out of people,” Moore said. Full Article
Read MoreAL: Federal jury finds man caught in Columbus child sex sting not guilty
It took a federal jury slightly more than an hour Wednesday to find an Auburn, Ala., man accused of being a child sexual predator not guilty. Full Article
Read MorePA: Pennsylvania community leaders deserve appreciation for giving second chances
[floridaactioncommittee.org] Recently, the Spartansburg, Pennsylvania community made national headlines by re-electing their fire chief, who happened to be a registered sex offender. Sadly, the newly re-elected chief resigned over the publicity, but many have stood behind him even in the wake of the negative publicity. A local news station, WJAC, featured another Pennsylvania community that had a similar situation, but chose to handle it in a more humane, compassionate way, that will undoubtedly benefit their entire community. Chief Paul Demi of the Spangler Fire Company said of one of their…
Read MoreAL: Bill would change school reporting, enrollment for juvenile sex offenders
[decaturdaily.com] MONTGOMERY — Juvenile sex offenders who are considered high or moderate risks for repeating such crimes would not be allowed to attend traditional public schools under proposed legislation in the Statehouse. Senate Bill 26 also would require the State Board of Education to develop by next year a policy for the supervision and monitoring of juvenile sex offender students considered by courts to be low risk for offending again. “Essentially, we’re trying to give those who are responsible for the care of children all the information that they need,”…
Read MoreMI: Legislation approved to prevent sex offenders to go to same school as their victims
[fox47news.com] The House Law and Justice Committee approved legislation on Tuesday that better protects underage students and victims of sexual-based crimes. The legislation was introduced by Representative Lana Theis, State Rep. from Brighton. The three-bill package was prompted by a recent Livingston County case where a 16-year-old was convicted of criminal sexual conduct against multiple victims as young as 12. Two of the underage victims joined Theis for testimony before the committee on Feb. 20. “These bills are needed to ensure we better protect victims of criminal sexual conduct. No…
Read MoreHouse passes anti-online sex trafficking bill, allows targeting of websites like Backpage.com
[UPDATED links 2/28/18] [floridaactioncommittee.org and The Washington Post] The House of Representatives passed a bill Tuesday that gives prosecutors, state attorneys general and sex trafficking victims a clearer route to pursue legal action against websites hosting advertisements for prostitutes, which advocates have long argued are a hive for trafficking children. The bill now goes to the Senate, which already has passed a similar version out of committee. If approved, it would go to the White House, where supporters are hopeful that President Trump will sign it. His daughter, Ivanka Trump,…
Read MoreCA: Keep violent sex offenders locked up (opinion by Jim Cooper, CA Assembly)
[sacbee.com] Two years ago, California voters were promised that violent sex offenders wouldn’t be released from prison early if they passed Proposition 57, the sweeping ballot initiative allowing the early release of inmates convicted of non-serious and non-violent crimes. But this month, a Superior Court judge tentatively ruled that sex offenders must be considered for early release under Prop. 57. If the ruling is made final, more than half of the 20,000 inmates now serving time for violent sex offenses could be back on the street. That was the hidden…
Read MoreNJ: Area woman wants notice of all sex offenders on internet website
Legislation that has been introduced by state Assemblywoman Amy Handlin (R-Monmouth) would, if passed in the Legislature and signed into law by the governor, allow members of the public to access information concerning all sex offenders, regardless of an individual’s risk of committing additional offenses in the future. Full Article
Read MoreTurkey: Considering Chemical Castration of Sex Offenders
Turkey has opened the door – again – to the idea of mandating chemical castration for those convicted of sex offences against children, a wrongheaded and abusive approach to dealing with child sexual abuse. Full Article
Read MoreAK: Anchorage man who attacked sex offenders sentenced to 23 years in prison
At an Anchorage Superior Court hearing for Jason Vukovich, who was sentenced Monday for attacking three registered sex offenders, his older brother Joel Fulton said that despite counseling, he has not yet recovered from what the two men experienced as children. … But the prosecutor, Patrick McKay, argued that there was no excuse for Vukovich to target and attack three strangers, beating one man so badly with a hammer that he fractured his skull and knocked him unconscious. “We’re lucky we’re not dealing with a murder charge,” Assistant District Attorney…
Read MoreNew lawsuit may provide access to social media
[floridaactioncommittee.org] Although the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that States cannot restrict a registered sex offender’s access to social media (Packingham v. North Carolina, 582 U.S. ___ (2017)), nothing has stopped social media companies, such as Facebook or Twitter, from restricting sex offenders from their platforms. A lawsuit filed last week may change that! Jared Taylor is the founder of the Virginia-based New Century Foundation – a white supremacist organization that was banned from Twitter because of new rules aimed at reducing abusive content. Although we don’t agree…
Read MorePA: Names being removed from sex offender registry
[theintell.com] Pennsylvania State Police have started the process for removing as many as 5,000 ex-offenders from the Megan’s Law registry under a state supreme court mandate and a new law. Shaquana Green appeared at a Pennsylvania State Police barracks last month to update her information as a registered sex offender. It’s an annual chore she has done for the last five years, having landed on the Megan’s Law list after disappearing with her daughter for three hours in violation of a custody order. As of this month, though, the name…
Read MoreJanice’s Journal: Beware of False Prophets….and Some Lawyers’ Letters, Too
Attorneys have sent letters to registrants for many years. In the past, the rate and regularity of those letters has been slow and uneven. In the past, such letters were often sent after an important case was decided by a state or federal court. That appears to be changing now as the rate and regularity at which attorneys are sending letters to registrants has increased significantly. In addition, some attorneys are even sending letters to registrants in a different state. In California, the rate and regularity of attorneys sending letters…
Read MoreACSOL Board Members Unravel Sex Offense Policies, Offer Hope for Registrants
[ACSOL] In the form of new scholarly articles, two ACSOL board members discuss the large gap between sex offense realities and sex offense policies as well as offer hope for registrants and their families. In the first of the articles, sociologist Emily Horowitz uses a timeline of key political events, legal milestones and research findings to identity how and why there is a gap between sex offense realities and sex offense policies. In the second of the articles, law professor Catherine Carpenter provides hope to registrants and their families by…
Read MoreNY: Sex offender awareness advisory board being pursued in Falls
A pair of city lawmakers say a continuing pattern of concerned inquiries from residents regarding the presence of pedophiles and other sexual offenders in city neighborhoods has pushed them to pursue the creation of an advisory board. Full Article
Read MoreACSOL Phone Meeting Alert for March 12: CA Tiered Registry
ACSOL will conduct a review of the California Tiered Registry during a phone conference call on Monday, March 12 at 5 p.m. (Pacific). The review will include attorneys Eliza Hersh, a leading legal advocate and educator in the movement for criminal justice reform, as well as ACSOL President Chance Oberstein and ACSOL Executive Director Janice Bellucci. The conference call will include a discussion of opportunities for some registrants to be removed from the registry prior to implementation of the Tiered Registry through certificates of rehabilitation as well as the reduction…
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