[floridaactioncommittee.org – 6/30/19] A federal Judge in Tennessee has issued a temporary restraining order blocking a law scheduled to go into effect tomorrow from being enforced. The law would have prevented a parent from living with or having unsupervised access to their own children if they have ever committed a sex offense. Read more The original story: TN: New Law Forces Dozens on Sex Offender Registry from their Homes
Read MoreMonth: June 2019
Emotional Support Group is now available in Sacramento most Thursdays!
You don’t have to be stranded on an island! Help is on the way! Do you feel like you are alone and no one else knows what you are going through, and too afraid to ask? Well, that day has passed… This Emotional Support Group is for those dealing with the stigma of a sex offense and their loved ones. This is based on a 12 step meeting format that allows people to discuss the emotional toil and challenges of life on the registry. When: Most Thursdays from 6:30 to…
Read MoreGA: Tag reading cams going up at these schools to catch speeders, sex offenders
[wsbtv.com – 6/22/19] GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. – School’s out, but new safety measures are already planned for the upcoming school year. New tag reading cameras are going up at four schools in Gwinnett County to catch speeders and sex offenders in school zones. “I believe it’ll be a great idea because the safety of our children is what’s important,” said parent Lauren Walker-Robertson. Content Continues Below … Officials are also working to allow the cameras access to the statewide offender database. That way, the cameras can read tags and alert…
Read MoreCO: Court upholds ruling to require teen who traded naked selfies with girls his age to register as a sex offender
[sentinelsource.com – 6/28/19] Colorado’s Supreme Court upheld a ruling last week that required a juvenile boy to register as a sex offender after sexting and trading erotic pictures with two girls roughly his age, a split decision that highlights states’ recent struggles with applying laws passed in a less tech-heavy age. It began, according to the court’s decision, at a 2012 Future Farmers of America conference, where the 15-year-old met two girls, one 17 and the other 15. In the months that followed, both girls came to believe they were…
Read MoreTN: New Law Forces Dozens on Sex Offender Registry from their Homes [UPDATED 6/30/19]
UPDATE 6/30/19: Tennessee Judge Grants Temporary Restraining Order [floridaactioncommittee.org – 6/30/19] Original article: Last Sunday, Jason broke the news to his 7-year-old daughter: He’d be moving out. When a new Tennessee law goes into effect Monday, he will be barred from living with her. The law, Senate Bill 425, also forbids him from being alone with his daughter, meaning he can’t handle doctor’s appointments or pick her up from school, and he and his wife will need to hire childcare since she works full-time. His daughter cried when she…
Read MoreIL: Column: Now it’s Wayside Cross residents’ turn to be blindsided
[chicagotribune.com – 6/28/19] Yes, this is a story about the law. In particular, it’s about a law that prohibits child sex offenders from being within 500 feet of a public park or building where children gather. Which is why the city of Aurora on Wednesday sent eviction notices to almost two dozen residents of Wayside Cross Ministries. It is, however, also a story about the spirit of the law, which is always far more complicated. For more than 90 years, the people who society tend to deem undesirable, even repugnant,…
Read MoreA New Argument In The Debate Over Airbnb: Stranger Danger
[huffpost.com – 6/26/19] “With a revolving door of strangers coming and going from short-term rental properties, tools like sex offender lists are becoming obsolete,” wrote Stacie Rumenap, president of the nonprofit Stop Child Predators, in a guest column last March in the Knox News in Knoxville, Tennessee. “There is no safeguard in place to stop a child predator from renting an Airbnb property next door.” At the time, Tennessee lawmakers were considering whether to forbid cities across the state from regulating short-term rentals. Rumenap wrote that if the legislation passed,…
Read MoreKat’s Blog: Registrants and a Defeatist Attitude
Recently I read some comments on another advocacy website pertaining to TN’s new law effective July 1, 2019, in which adult registrants may not reside overnight in a home with a minor in it. The comments that caught my attention weren’t the “we’ve got to fight and do something about this” comments, but instead, the number of defeatist comments, “nothing is changing, we’re only fooling ourselves, we’re not winning, little wins mean nothing”. One person even went so far as to say something to the effect that they felt like…
Read MoreFL: Florida’s sex offender population is aging. Where can they live out their silver years?
[miamiherald.co – 6/20/19] When Mark Sullivan found his roommate, Aquila “Bud” Albertson, grasping onto their refrigerator door, clearly in pain, Sullivan said the 94-year-old needed medical attention, but Albertson tried to downplay it. The roommates both knew Albertson wasn’t getting the medical care he needed daily. It was left to Sullivan to feed him, give him his glaucoma medicine and clean his sheets when he had accidents. But even Sullivan, 58, couldn’t provide around-the-clock care. He only found Albertson that day because he was given the day off from his…
Read MoreSCOTUS: Justices Nix Heavy Sentences for Repeat Sex Offenders
In an opinion that aligns Justice Neil Gorsuch with his liberal colleagues, the Supreme Court overturned a law that imposes heightened punishments on sex offenders who are caught with child pornography. “Only a jury, acting on proof beyond a reasonable doubt, may take a person’s liberty. That promise stands as one of the Constitution’s most vital protections against arbitrary government,” Gorsuch wrote for the plurality Wednesday. “Yet in this case a congressional statute compelled a federal judge to send a man to prison for a minimum of five years without empaneling a…
Read MoreBahamas: ‘Don’t Let Public See Sex Register’
The country’s leading counselling and advocacy services provider for abuse victims does not want a sex offender register to be made public. Dr Sandra Dean-Patterson, director of the Bahamas Crisis Centre, said a public register would be ineffective and would lure people into a false sense of security. Her comments when contacted yesterday came after the government published draft regulations for a sex offender registry earlier this month on its website. Full Article
Read MoreFlorida Action Committee Weekly Update 2019-06-18: Trip to ACSOL Conference
[floridaactioncommittee.org – 6/18/19] Dear Members and Advocates, Some people travel to Los Angeles hoping to run into celebrities or rock stars. My trip to LA for the Alliance for Constitutional Sex Offense Laws (ACSOL) provided just that. To myself and most people in the advocacy community, Eric Janus, Ira Ellman, Adele Nicholas, Emily Horowitz, Janice Bellucci and the others that presented at ACSOL are our rock stars! I was fortunate to meet with, learn from and speak to these celebrities in person! Professor (and former Law School Dean) Eric Janus…
Read MoreJanice’s Journal: Court Decision an Important Point on Path to Tipping Point
Another court has spoken the truth: registration is punishment. That court is Division III of the Colorado Court of Appeals. The case is People v. In the Interest of T.B. which was decided last week. This is a case that could be overlooked. After all, this court in only one of several courts of appeal in the state of Colorado. And the plaintiff in this case was a juvenile when he was convicted. The reason the case should not be overlooked is that it is an important data point on…
Read MoreNY: Bill preventing minors from living under same roof as sex offenders awaits Cuomo’s OK
Minors will no longer be able to live under the same roof as sex offenders who have committed violent sexual crimes thanks to a bill from Island Assemblyman Charles Fall (D-North Shore) that made it out of the State Legislature before the 2019 legislative session ended Friday. Full Article
Read MoreCO: “The ultimate scarlet letter”: A 29-year-old could get name off sex-offender registry for juvenile crimes if Denver court decides he’s being cruelly, unusually punished
[denverpost.com – 6/22/19] A 29-year-old Coloradan made to register as a sex-offender for the rest of his life because of two sexual offenses he committed as a child and teenager could get his name off the list if a Denver juvenile court determines the lifetime mandate is cruel and unusual punishment. The development comes via a Colorado Court of Appeals decision, which the 29-year-old’s attorney, Gail Johnson, described as groundbreaking. The decision signals a changing attitude on how long juvenile sex offenders must be tied to their crimes, and it…
Read MoreRomania: To have a national sex offender registry
Romania is to have a national sex offender registry that will allow the rapid identification of persons who have committed sexual offenses. President Klaus Iohannis signed on Thursday, June 20, the law on the organization of this Automated National Registry, which targets sexual offenders. Full Article
Read MoreCO: Colorado Sex-Offender Registry Takes Another Brutal Hit
Colorado’s sex-offender registry, already under legal siege, just took another hit. On June 20, the Colorado Court of Appeals determined that the lifetime registration requirement for Coloradans found guilty of two or more sex offenses when they were juveniles qualifies as punishment under the Eighth Amendment. The 2-1 decision means that a lower court can now consider whether that rule is unconstitutional — and such a finding would strike another blow against a law-enforcement concept that’s become increasingly controversial. Full Article Decision
Read MoreKat’s Blog: Where Does the Burden of Proof Lie?
Just by virtue of being on the registry comes the erroneous assumption that all registrants are a danger to the public. With some of what I’ll call, the lesser offenses, public urination, skinny dipping, sexting, etc. it doesn’t really seem that the state or federal courts “prove” that a registrant is a threat to the community. In the eyes of the law, a “sex offender is a sex offender” and the same registrant label is slapped on everyone for 10yrs. to life. Who bears the burden of proof that a…
Read More