SCOTUS: 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…

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Bahamas: ‘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

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