General Comments February 2019

I bring this to the attention here of the masses who read this forum and the importance of this SCOTUS case below.

Justices: Nebraska county owes $28M for wrongful convictions

https://news.yahoo.com/supreme-court-rejects-nebraska-county-appeal-over-28m-145026202–politics.html

Beatrice Six – falsely convicted of a sex related crime and murder by those in power who have passed on the onus to pay the judgement to the taxpayers. DNA cleared them 11 years ago, which was 23 years after the slaying, sadly.

There’s an article on today’s (March 6) New York Times website “Her Husband Did the Unthinkable. This Is a Play About Everything After” about a woman whose husband was convicted of child pornography and who has written a play about her experiences! Particularly fascinating I think are the many comments (120 as of this moment — click on the balloon far right opposite the date), many from families who have been through the same years’ long ordeal. Also, a number of comments distinguishing between making child porn, distributing it, and simply viewing it, and also whether the victims were nine or ten years old or 16 or 17, as though people are now seeing gradations of culpability and not lumping us all together as unredeemable monsters. But, predictably, many comments asserting that the husband’s sentence of 10 years’ probation and lifetime registry was ridiculously easy. And, decrying the playwright for cashing in on her family’s and the porn victims’ misery.

Here’s the link to the story, but I’m not sure you can see this if you don’t subscribe to The Times:

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/06/theater/maddie-corman-accidentally-brave.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage

@ Josh: Yes, I listened (well, mostly listened, as my phone reception kept cutting in and out). I am looking forward to hearing the full oral arguments as soon as they are posted.
Yes, I was pleased to hear the good, strong arguments.

(Not sure what you are referring to re: “the case being accepted and pushed to October for oral arguments”. What we listened to today WERE the oral arguments.)

@ All. I would like to share part of an e-mail with you all and its from 2016. During this pandermic period I think its time much of this registry relief is desolved. This fellow is an amazing person.

Thanks for getting in touch. Yes, that article was written by a long-time friend of mine, who I first met while doing time in Arizona. She’s become a wonderful friend of the family.

Thanks for your kind words.

Of course, I agree with your sentiments concerning sex offenders. This is a huge issue, one I broach in my book Time of Grace, which is what won me the Soros Justice Fellowship—talk about an amazing group of people doing work for criminal justice in this country! I’m honored to be among them. One of the fellows is doing work on the problem you speak of: young kids on the registry and how it affects their lives for the worse. She’s researched cases across the country. The registry is the biggest issue. Even law enforcement agrees that it doesn’t work, but serves to drive people underground. But the public doesn’t seem to understand this. It’s punishment, as you know, though the courts say it isn’t.