A Minnesota group will study the laws that govern people convicted of a sex offense this year and provide a report to the Legislature in January. The state budget includes $25,000 for the creation of a Predatory Offense Statutory Framework Working Group by Sept. 1. It will examine the state’s predatory offense registration laws including “the requirements placed on people convicted of an offense, the crimes for which POR is required, the method by which POR requirements are applied to people convicted of an offense and the effectiveness of the…
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MN: OCEAN Community Conference and Rally — July 18, 2021
OCEAN is hosting their Community Conference at Capital Mall in St. Paul, Sunday, July 18, 2021. At this gathering, a lineup of speakers will educate the public on the terrors of preventive detention in the state of Minnesota. The first speaker will be introduced at 1:00 PM. If you can, please bring your own chair. At 3:30 PM we will walk/drive to the Governor’s Mansion, where we will demand an Executive Order from Governor Tim Walz to shutdown preventive detention in Minnesota. The current conditions are ripe for mass…
Read MoreNE: James Fairbanks sentenced: 40–70 years in murder of person listed on the registry
OMAHA, Neb. (KMTV) — James Fairbanks, who pleaded no contest to second-degree murder in the killing of Mattieo Condoluci last year, was sentenced in a Douglas County on Wednesday morning. 3 News Now reporter, Jon Kipper was in the courtroom where a judge sentenced him to a total of 40–70 years on two counts: second-degree murder and possessing a firearm while committing a felony. Condoluci’s daughter spoke in support of Fairbanks at the sentencing hearing and Condoluci’s son spoke against Fairbanks. On May 16, 2020, Condoluci, 64, was found dead…
Read MoreACSOL Files Lawsuit Challenging Re-Sentencing Regulations
ACSOL has filed a lawsuit challenging regulations issued by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) that categorically exclude inmates required to register from re-sentencing opportunities provided in recent legislation. The lawsuit was filed on July 6 in Sacramento Superior Court. “The regulations being challenged repeat the same mistake made by CDCR in its regulations implementing Proposition 57,” stated ACSOL Executive Director Janice Bellucci. “That is, the re-sentencing regulations create a categorical exclusion of all registrants even though the legislation does not.” The individual plaintiff in the case, Antoine…
Read MoreCA: Dad tackles person convicted of sex offense who exposed himself in front of 5-year-old daughter
A brave dad tackled and duct-taped a person who is listed on the sex offense registry who broke into a California home and exposed himself in front of his sleeping 5-year-old daughter, according to a new report. The man started creeping around outside the home in Grayson around 5 a.m. Tuesday, KOVR reported. “He went and knocked the door, he tried to open the door, peeking through the window, trying to see and he was showing his private parts around the windows,” said the little girl’s sister, Ceci Ramirez, translating…
Read MoreWhy Sex Offense Laws Do More Harm Than Good
By Deborah Jacobs There are few crimes more heinous than child molestation. Whether violently attacked by a stranger or preyed upon by a trusted adult in the home, school or place of worship, children who survive such assaults are often left to walk a lifelong path of sorrow and pain. Unfortunately, our government has failed to take steps that will make a meaningful difference in preventing sex offenses. Megan’s Law, civil commitment, and the newest trend in anti-sex offense legislation, banishment zones, which restrict people convicted of a sex offense…
Read MoreHigh price for moral panic over historical sexual abuse
Have a look at these extraordinary figures. Two years into our National Redress Scheme (NRS) for victims of institutional sexual abuse, over $500 million has been paid to 5,920 of 10,000 applicants who have so far applied – a mere blip compared to the 60,000 victims assumed to be eligible. The total cost of the scheme is estimated at an astonishing $4.01 billion, according to the Royal Commission’s report on redress. Responsible institutions, like the churches, are paying out part of this money but the Commonwealth Government has already handed out $55 million…
Read MoreMN: Victoria neighborhood protests person listed on the registry at level 3
A group of frustrated, angry and concerned citizens is keeping a close watch on a person listed on the registry at level 3, recently released into their Victoria neighborhood. The group is hoping to have Vanhecke removed from that area. But state Department of Corrections officials believe he is not a public danger and is entitled to live at the residence in question. One DOC official believes the community group maintaining a constant vigil outside Vanhecke’s residence may be doing a disservice to him and the community. Regardless of the…
Read MoreColorado Court Upholds Severely Limited Use of Internet, Social Media for Registrant on Probation
A Colorado court of appeals issued a decision today upholding a condition of probation that severely limits a registrant’s use of both the internet and social media while he is on probation. The court acknowledged in its decision that the registrant’s offense did not include use of either the internet or social media. “This decision is outrageous and must be appealed,” stated ACSOL Executive Director Janice Bellucci. “This court made a huge and erroneous leap in logic that a person who commits a hands-on offense with a family member, who…
Read MoreIs the Tide Turning Against Public Sex Offense Registries?
BY RORY FLEMING JULY 2, 2021 On June 8, the American Law Institute, arguably the most prestigious non-governmental law reform organization in the country, concluded its national meeting. One of its agenda items was to have its thousands of elected members—top federal appeals judges among them, who enjoy lifetime appointments after being confirmed by the United States Senate—vote on a draft of the revised chapter of the Model Penal Code for sex crimes. The Model Penal Code, first codified in 1962, helps guide legislation as well as interpretative decisions by courts. ALI’s membership voted to approve the most recent draft, which…
Read MoreGeneral Comments July 2021
Comments that are not specific to a certain post should go here, for the month of July 2021. Contributions should relate to the cause and goals of this organization and please, keep it courteous and civil. This section is not intended for posting links to news articles without additional relevant comment.
Read MoreCO: Supreme Court’s decision on sex offense registry leaves some eyeing a broader constitutional challenge
Although the Colorado Supreme Court insisted its ruling applied narrowly, advocates for defendants believe the justices have laid a foundation for challenging the constitutionality of the state’s sex offense registration laws more broadly. On Monday, the Court decided by 6-1 that it violates the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment for Colorado to require repeat juveniles convicted of a sex offense to register for life on the sex offense registry without possibility of removal. Justice Monica M. Márquez, writing for the majority, found one overriding principle that guided the…
Read MoreUrgent: SCOTUS petition needs signatures now
This note is for all organizations and individuals that fight (each in their own way) against the draconian sex offense laws in this country. Please forward this email to any pertinent organization or individual that we may have unintentionally overlooked. To those of you who don’t know us, we are the parents of an incarcerated son who, in 2016 was sentenced to 14 years in federal prison for a crime without a victim; for a nonviolent, non-contact, first offense; for the crime of falling prey to the manipulative tactics of seasoned…
Read MoreCan Children Who Commit Sex Offenses Be Rehabilitated?
By John Borneman 29 JUN 2018 In the first season of Showtime’s Dexter, the character Dexter Morgan, a vigilante serial killer who also works for the fictitious Miami Metro police as a forensic technician, hunts a child molester who had escaped justice and the law. After nearly strangling his prey, Dexter yells, “Open your eyes and look at what you did!” The molester, a choir director who also murdered some of the young boys he assaulted, cries, “I couldn’t help myself. … Please, you have to understand.” Dexter replies, “Trust me,…
Read MoreNY: Commission on Prosecutorial Conduct
This has been a long 8-year fight to hold prosecutors accountable for professional misconduct that steals liberty from the innocent, leaves the true criminal on the streets and costs municipalities millions in wrongful conviction settlements
Read MoreFL: Every Parent’s Worst Nightmare
We’ve all heard the phrase “every parent’s worst nightmare” in the context of a person with a sex offense conviction. It usually conjures the image of an abduction and sexual assault and murder. But for every parent who happens to be required to register due to a past sex offense, our “parent’s worst nightmare” is that one day, some law will come out that will take our own children away from us. We are facing our worst nightmare. Monday, Governor Ron DeSantis signed HB 141 into Law. The bill, titled,…
Read MoreFL: DeSantis signs bill closing sex-offense registration loophole
ALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) — Governor Ron DeSantis signed a bill into law Tuesday effectively closing a loophole in Florida’s sexual offense registration law. The former law’s loophole allowed a person convicted of a sex crime to forgo registering because they didn’t pay a court-ordered fine. In 2020, a judge ruled that Ray La Vel James of Tampa, who spent 12 years in prison after being convicted of molesting two girls at a public pool, didn’t have to register as a sex offender because the law states registration isn’t required until a…
Read MoreNJ: Murphy signs historic law banning landlords from asking renters about criminal records (except…)
In a step toward racial equity and ending housing discrimination, Gov. Phil Murphy on Friday signed the Fair Chance in Housing Act, barring landlords in New Jersey from asking about criminal history on housing applications. At the state’s first commemoration of Juneteenth as an official holiday, Murphy signed the historic “ban the box” bill (A1919), which advocates say is the most sweeping form of the law in the nation. “With today’s action, Governor Murphy has put New Jersey at the forefront of criminal justice reform by helping to dismantle the…
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