Please join ACSOL Executive Director and civil rights attorney Janice Bellucci for our next meeting. The meeting will be held on Saturday September 16, 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 choose to show or hide yourself, or you can use the Zoom phone number to call…
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UPDATED 8/21/23: Corrections to the Paris, Wisconsin 6,500 Feet Residency Restriction by the 7th Circuit
UPDATED Source: floridaactioncommittee.org 8/21/23 Attorneys with the Paris case (6500-foot residence restriction) have contacted us [Florida Action Committee] to correct misstatements that were made in our most recent post. They let us know there is much to be optimistic about in the court’s decision as they are putting some brakes on municipal ordinances that have spiraled out of control in Wisconsin – something they have never done before. We should not be reading this decision as countenancing 6500-foot zones more generally. Attorney Adele Nicholas will be continuing to fight these…
Read MoreOH: Ohio’s arson registry just turned 10 years old. Is it working?
Source: cantonrep.com 8/17/23 In 2013, Ohio lawmakers passed Section 2909.15 of the Ohio Revised code, creating the statewide arson registry. There are currently 1,377 individuals registered as arson offenders. Fire officials and investigators say the registry is a valuable tool. Other experts argue the database is ineffective and unconstitutional. Shawndra Brown decided to set a car on fire following a domestic dispute. That was in 2013. As part of her sentence, the 35-year-old Columbus resident was required to register once a year, every year, as an arson offender — her…
Read MoreTX: Call to 911 backfires on Pleasant Farms man who tried to murder a registrant
Source: oaoa.com 8/14/23 A Pleasant Farms man who thought deputies were going to come to his house to arrest a man he described as a sex offender was arrested instead. According to an Ector County Sheriff’s Office report, Daniel Renee Sanchez, 37, called 911 Sunday to say he’d detained a sex offender on his property in the 4500 block of West Mulberry Street. When deputies arrived, Sanchez said he’d detained, at gunpoint, a 21-year-old man who had texted inappropriate things to his stepson a week prior, the report stated. Read…
Read MoreCO: Lincoln County judge wrongly denied man opportunity to justify possession of contraband, court rules
Source: coloradopolitics.com 8/14/23 Licoln County judge improperly denied an incarcerated man the opportunity to justify his possession of contraband weapons behind bars, Colorado’s second-highest court ruled last week in reversing the conviction. Colorado law provides for a “choice-of-evils” defense. A person can avoid conviction if they show they were facing imminent harm and engaged in criminal conduct as an emergency measure, without another path available to avoid the harm. Edward ___ was incarcerated at Limon Correctional Facility for a sex offense when he disclosed to an employee that he had…
Read MoreCA: School District Warned Regarding Support for Residency Restrictions
The Lakeside Union School District (LUSD), located in San Diego county, was warned in a letter sent yesterday of the dangers it would face if it chooses to support residency restrictions. Local parents and other residents of Lakeside, California, recently demanded that LUSD support residency restrictions due to their concerns about registrants who live near local schools. “Once again, the public is reacting out of fear and ignoring the facts regarding registrants,” stated ACSOL Executive Director Janice Bellucci. “Their fear is based upon the mistaken belief that all registrants pose…
Read MoreCA Department of Justice Assigns Tiers to 9,000 Additional Registrants
The California Department of Justice (CA DOJ) has assigned tiers to more than 9,000 individuals required to register during the past seven months. As a result, there are up to 9,000 additional registrants who are now eligible to petition for removal from the registry. ACSOL filed a lawsuit on January 5, 2023, in Sacramento Superior Court requesting that the court order CA DOJ to assign all individuals required to register to a tier. At the time the case was filed, more than 12,500 registrants lacked a tier and therefore could…
Read MoreCT: It’s time to reform the CT sex offense registry
Source: ctmirror.org 8/10/23 This year will mark the 25th anniversary of the public Sex Offender Registry (SOR) in Connecticut. The SOR – also called the sexual offense registry by advocates who want to move past the stigma of dehumanizing labels – is a publicly accessible internet database of individuals who have been convicted of a sexual offense and reside, work, or attend school in Connecticut. It is searchable and includes their name, physical description, addresses, photo, and offense details. Twenty-five years has been more than sufficient for researchers to study…
Read MoreCA: Sex offenders near Lakeside [near San Diego] schools upset parents, board members
Source: cbs8.com 8/9/23 LAKESIDE, Calif. — Lakeside residents gathered at Riverview Elementary School Wednesday to express their outrage over the amount of convicted sex offenders near the schools. Both parents and school board members said they want to be more informed about sex offenders in the area and also more blanket restrictions surrounding them living near schools, parks and bus stops. There used to be state restrictions that prohibited registered sex offenders from living within 2,000 feet of schools and parks where children gathered. Jessica’s Law was overturned in 2015…
Read MoreTN: Registry to life sentence: TN courts remove dozens from sex offender registry after legal challenges
Source: newschannel5.com 8/9/23 NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — It’s costing taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars as more people file lawsuits claiming they shouldn’t be restricted by a registry that didn’t exist when they were convicted. Dozens of people have since been removed from the registry as a result, with dozens more potentially on the way. Thomas spent more than 20 years on Tennessee’s Sex Offender Registry but now considers himself a free man. His case is still being appealed, so we’ve agreed to stick with first names for his protection.…
Read MoreProtection, Punishment, and the Victims Rights Movement
Source: thecrimereport.org 8/9/23 In 2018, 156 accusers of Larry Nasser, the former team doctor for USA Gymnastics Team who molested them over and over again during medical appointments, testified at his sentencing hearing about their experiences and the damage done to their lives as a result of his abuse. Their emotional and personal stories helped in sentencing him to between 40 and 175 years in prison. In February of 2023, the testimonies of family members and friends of the victims killed by Sayfullo Saipov, a terrorist convicted of running over…
Read MoreWI: Wisconsin releases sex offenders from GPS bracelets after court ruling
Source: captimes.com 8/8/23 The state Department of Corrections has begun releasing certain sex offenders from lifetime GPS tracking after a Wisconsin Supreme Court decision undermined the agency’s justification for keeping people on electronic monitoring beyond their sentences. The department confirmed to the Cap Times that it is in the process of identifying everyone who was forced to wear the GPS devices for the rest of their lives as the result of a now-debunked interpretation of state statute by former Attorney General Brad Schimel. As of Tuesday, it remained unknown precisely…
Read MoreMS: Lifetime voting ban for felony convictions struck down in Mississippi
Source: abcnews.go.com 8/4/23 Mississippi’s lifetime voting ban for people with disqualifying felony convictions has been struck down in a new decision from the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. The court’s 2-1 decision will restore the right to vote for tens of thousands of Mississippians, according to the plaintiff’s council Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP. The court ruled Thursday in the case of Hopkins v. Hosemann that by banning former offenders “from the body politic forever” they will be punished “beyond the term their culpability requires,” according…
Read MoreFL: Revisions made to Hernando County Sex Offender and Sexual Predator Ordinance
Source: hernandosun.com 8/4/23 Last week, the Hernando Sun ran a story on recent changes to the Hernando County Sexual Offender and Sexual Offender Ordinance found in Chapter 21 of the Code of Ordinances. The story was largely based on a copy of the revised ordinance posted on the BOCC website for their July 11th meeting. We have learned that the copy of the ordinance posted did not reflect some of the final revisions. County Commissioner John Allocco spoke with us about the final revisions and why the changes were needed.…
Read MoreACSOL Conference Schedule Now Available
The schedule for ACSOL’s annual conference to be held on October 14 and October 15 in Los Angeles is now available. The first plenary speaker for the conference will be sociologist Emily Horowitz who will discuss her years of research regarding registrants described in her newly published book, “From Rage to Reason.” Dr. Horowitz’s presentation will be immediately followed by a panel of three registrants described in that book, who have succeeded in life despite the daily challenges of the registry. The registrants are Shawn Rolfe, PhD, Norman Harris of…
Read MoreUnited States Sentencing Commission Public Meeting Scheduled for Aug 24, 2023
Source: content.govdelivery.com 8/7/23 Commission to Vote on Final Priorities and May Vote to Make the 2023 Criminal History Amendment (Parts A and B) Retroactive We invite you to join us on Thursday, August 24, 2023 at 3 p.m. (EDT) for a public meeting of the U.S. Sentencing Commission. The meeting will be held at the Thurgood Marshall Federal Judiciary Building, One Columbus Circle, N.E., in Suite 2-500 (South Lobby). The meeting will be livestreamed . The agenda follows: Report of the Chair Possible Vote on Adoption of April 2023 Meeting…
Read MoreThe Dance of Justice and Mercy: An Integrated Approach to Crime, Addiction, and Recidivism
Source: jumpstartvision.org 7/15/23 A perpetual challenge our society grapples with is the issue of crime, addiction, and recidivism. Traditional approaches often prioritize punitive measures as the primary means of addressing these issues, but emerging research suggests that this is not the most effective approach. A more compassionate, empathetic strategy that combines justice and mercy may not only offer more hope for the individuals embroiled in these cycles, but also for the overall health and well-being of society. Justice and Mercy: A Necessary Union According to research, an approach that…
Read MoreFBI finds 200 sex trafficking victims, 59 missing children in two-week sweep
Source: nbcnews.com 8/1/23 The FBI found 200 sex trafficking victims and more than 125 suspects during a two-week child exploitation operation in July, federal officials said Tuesday. During “Operation Cross County,” the FBI located 59 victims of child sex trafficking and child sexual exploitation and 59 missing children. The FBI teamed with state and local agencies to identify or arrest 126 suspects of child sexual exploitation and human trafficking and 68 suspected traffickers. Read the full article
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