WA: ‘Worst of the worst:’ Washingtonians fighting to stop sex offender transfers off McNeil Island

Source: q13fox.com 2/27/23 People are rallying, hoping to put a stop to sex offender transfers off of McNeil Island. The Department of Health and Human Services said five of the “worst of the worst” sexually violent predators would be moving to Tenino, Washington. The home in Tenino is sitting empty for now, but as The Spotlight learned, these sorts of facilities are already found all over the state. And nearby residents are not always told who is going to be living inside. Watch the video

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FL: He was homeless and mentally ill. A judge sentenced him to 150 years for CP. Is that justice?

Source: miamiherald.com 2/27/23 There’s no argument: Jared Stephens committed a crime, and he deserved some form of punishment. We’re not suggesting that child pornography isn’t an evil act. Possessing it is a crime for good reason. But the fight now in Florida courts to reduce the 150-year prison term Stephens received is about more than laws and sentences. It’s about how how our judicial system treats defendants with serious mental illness. The question is whether the 32-year-old man diagnosed with schizophrenia — who talked in court about shutting off electricity…

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AZ: Arizona Senate Committees Pass Two Bills in GOP Push to Criminalize Drag

Source: phoenixnewtimes.com 2/24/23 A group of Republican state lawmakers focused on attacking LGBTQ Arizonans passed two bills that would criminalize drag shows, businesses that host them, and parents who take their children to see them. SB 1698, sponsored by Senator Justine Wadsack, would make it a felony for parents to take their child to a drag show. The parents would have to register as sex offenders, too. SB 1030, sponsored by state Senator Anthony Kern, would make it a felony for some businesses to host drag shows. Republicans in the…

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IN: Killer of Registrant Sentenced to 75 years But Has No Remorse

Source: tristatehomepage.com 2/23/23 EVANSVILLE, Ind. (WEHT) — An Evansville man will spend decades behind bars for murdering a sex offender. According to court documents, 34-year-old Ricky Allen Kiper Jr. was sentenced to 60 years in prison and 15 years for a habitual offender enhancement after pleading guilty to murder several weeks ago. Kiper shot and killed James ____ at a home on the northside of Evansville on July 27, 2022. After the shooting, officials confirmed that the deceased victim was on the sex offender registry list. Read the full article…

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Man Offers First Class Seat To Child In Coach, American Airlines Suspects He’s A Predator

Source: viewfromthewing.com 2/23/23 An American Airlines ConciergeKey passenger, one of the carrier’s top customers, shared to social media that they were flying from Portland to Dallas on Tuesday’s flight 2655 and wound up suspected of being a child predator – because they tried to do a good deed, giving up their first class seat for an unaccompanied minor seated in coach. They were heading to Dallas to connect to a British Airways flight to London. Pre-boarding (since ConciergeKey members board ahead of first class, even), they noticed “a very young…

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Why Do We Treat Sex Crimes Differently Than Other Violent Crimes?

Source: thecrimereport.org 2/21/23 In a recently published research paper in the Stanford Law Review, Aya Gruber, a law professor at the University of Colorado, considers the concept of “sex exceptionalism” in the United States criminal justice system and asks readers to take a second look at how we treat sex crimes.  Gruber previously published “The Feminist War on Crime: The Unexpected Role of Women’s Liberation in Mass Incarceration” with University of California Press.  In “Sex Exceptionalism in Criminal Law,” Gruber argues that treating sex crimes differently than other crimes is…

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TN: Multi-day sex offender compliance operation completed in Carroll Co.

Source: wbbjtv.com 2/23/23 HUNTINGDON, Tenn. — Multiple law enforcement agencies joined this week to conduct a sex offender compliance operation in Carroll County. Dubbed Operation Walter Browning, the two-day saturation was conducted on Tuesday and Wednesday. According to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, the operation involved compliance checks for 47 registered sex offenders throughout Carroll County. The TBI says authorities made contact with 39 of those individuals, and all but one were found to be in complia Read the full article

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FL: Century Man Tries To Run Over Man He Thought Was Convicted Sex Offender, ECSO Says

Source: northescambia.com 2/22/23 A Century man is charged after allegedly trying to run over a man he thought was a convicted sex offender as he walked out of a liquor store. Kinte Hassan Franklin, 45, was charged with felony aggravated battery using a deadly weapon. The victim told the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office that Franklin was the driver of a maroon car with the window partially down outside the Fusion Liquor store next door to the Food Giant on North Century Boulevard. The driver, Franklin, told him “I’m going to…

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KS: Protecting kids is job one, but this Kansas proposal would just create new criminals | Opinion

Source: kansascity.com 2/20/23 When something horrific happens to a child, the impulse is to take every action necessary to ensure it never happens to any child anywhere again. That tendency is understandable and often praiseworthy — but there are times it can also be destructive. So it goes with “Lailah’s Law,” a bill now under consideration in the Kansas House. The legislation is named for a 7-year-old Wichita girl who was assaulted and nearly killed in 2017 by Corbin Breitenbach, who had recently been paroled on a previous conviction of…

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OH: Tech makes registering sex offenders easier

Source: thecourier.com 2/19/23 FREMONT — All 88 county sheriffs have been provided with new cameras to improve the registration process of convicted sexual offenders, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost announced Friday. “Ohio’s sex offender registration system plays a critical role in holding convicted offenders accountable, and, in the hands our county sheriffs, these tools ensure that photographs are clear and uniform across the state,” Yost said. “Our job is to support local law enforcement, and that’s exactly what we’re doing with this grant.” In 59 counties, sheriff’s offices that requested…

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UK: Domestic abusers to be added to violent and sex offender register in new crackdown

Source: news.sky.com 2/20/23 The most dangerous domestic abusers will be recorded on the violent and sex offender register under new proposals aimed at better protecting the public. Around 2.4 million people in England and Wales experienced domestic abuse in the last year, with around one in five homicides related to it, according to the Home Office. Starting immediately, anyone jailed for 12 months or more for coercive control, including suspended sentences, will be placed on the violent and sex offender register. This means they will have to tell police their…

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ACSOL March 18, 2023 Online Meeting

Please join ACSOL Executive Director and civil rights attorney Janice Bellucci as well as ACSOL board member and criminal defense attorney Chance Oberstein for our next meeting.  The meeting will be held on Saturday, March 18, online on Zoom beginning at 10 a.m. Pacific time, 1:00 PM Eastern, and will last at least two hours. You can use the Zoom app or call in using a Zoom phone number. There is no registration needed for this meeting. You can use the Zoom app to see Janice and Chance and choose…

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Mexico: Court closes to the public registry of sex offenders of the CDMX

Source: eluniversal.com.mx 2/16/23 [NOTE: This article is in Spanish, so we used online translation to get the following English version. Of course, there may be translation errors] Faced with the argument of violating the right to social reintegration and the presumption of innocence of the sentenced, the Court closes the registry to the public. The vote for its validity will take place on Monday, February 20 The Public Registry of Sex Offenders (RPAS) of Mexico City, created in 2020, violates the right to social reintegration, generates stigma and a double…

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PA: Superior Court finds no vindictiveness by judge, Bedford DA

Source: altoonamirror.com 2/16/23 An opinion handed down by the Pennsylvania Superior Court this week has found that a Bedford County man failed to prove his new minimum sentence of 26.5 years on child abuse charges — more than double his original sentence for the crimes — was based on the “vindictivness” of the judge and district attorney. Mark Allen _____, 53, who is serving his sentence in the State Correctional Institution at Laurel Highlands, sought to show that his new and much tougher sentence was unconstitutional because Bedford County authorities…

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CA Sex Offender Management Board Reaches “General Consensus” on Changes to Tiered Registry Law

Source: ACSOL The CA Sex Offender Management Board today reached a “general consensus” regarding 5 of 7 proposed changes to the Tiered Registry Law during its monthly meeting.  All of the changes considered today were included in a presentation to the board made by ACSOL during the board’s meeting last month. Specifically, CASOMB members today gave preliminary approval to the following proposed changes: (1) remove felony child pornography offenses from Tier 3, (2) remove convictions for PC 288(c) from Tier 3, (3) remove attempted offenses from Tier 3, (4) allow…

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Research paper: America Has Been Going About Stopping Child Sex Abuse The Wrong Way

Source: time.com 2/15/23 By Elizabeth Letourneau and Luke Malone Letourneau is director of the Moore Center for the Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Malone is an award-winning journalist who reports on child sexual abuse and victimization. They are co-writing a book about child sexual abuse prevention and the history of U.S. sex crime laws for Basic Books Most of us would say that you can‘t put a price tag on keeping kids safe from sexual violence. Yet we do. And the…

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CA: Government Files Motion to Dismiss SORNA Complaint

Source: ACSOL The federal government filed on February 13, 2023, a motion to dismiss the pending lawsuit which challenges SORNA regulations that became effective in January 2022.  The motion alleges that the complaint fails to state a claim and that one of the plaintiffs lacks standing.  A hearing regarding this motion is scheduled for April 5, 2023, in federal district court in Riverside, California. While the motion is pending, the preliminary injunction granted by the court on January 13, 2023, will continue.  That injunction prevents the federal government from enforcing…

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LA: Lawmakers, investigators working on ways to prevent sex crimes against children

Source: wafb.com 2/14/23 BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) – Louisiana leaders are reporting a sharp increase in the amount of sex crimes committed against children. At a special committee meeting Tuesday, Feb. 14, one investigator described the fight as “a war the state is losing.” “There are so many cases it’s a tidal wave of tragedy,” said Davis Ferris, an investigator from the Attorney General’s office. Ferris says the state’s six cybercrime agents are working close to 6000 cases on top of new ones coming in every day. State leaders believe…

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