CA: California Supreme Court upholds law that treats rapists more harshly than some murderers

Source: sfchronicle.com 8/29/24 Prisoners serving life terms for violent sex crimes committed between ages 18 and 25 are not entitled to a parole hearing after 25 years, even though such hearings are available for some convicted murderers, the state Supreme Court ruled Thursday. The so-called one-strike sentences, approved by the California voters in 2006 and expanded by the Legislature in 2010, made violent sex offenders ineligible for early parole hearings because of the seriousness of their crimes and the danger they could pose after release, the court said. Lawmakers reasonably…

Read More

CA: Background Check Vendors Reckon With Increased Job Bias Scrutiny

Source: bloomberglaw.com 8/23/24 Third-party employee screening companies are finding themselves more in the litigation fray in California for blocking job seekers with criminal records thanks to a growing advocacy and legal movement that’s pushing to hold them accountable alongside employers. A group of background check companies—DISA Global Solutions Inc., the Health and Safety Council, and the North American Background Screening Consortium—and three oil refinery businesses are accused of using a rating system that screens out otherwise qualified candidates solely based on their previous convictions that have no adverse relationship with…

Read More

Watchdog: FBI continues to fail child sex abuse victims despite reforms after bungled Nassar investigation

Source: kcra.com 8/29/24 WASHINGTON —The FBI has continued to mishandle allegations of child sexual abuse in the years after the bureau’s notorious bungling of the investigation into disgraced USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar, according to an audit by the Justice Department’s inspector general released Thursday. Because of those failures, allegations of sexual abuse against children were left unaddressed for months while minors continued to be victimized, the audit found. The audit followed up on issues that the department’s top watchdog identified as part of its scathing investigation into how the…

Read More