A three-judge panel with the Texas 14th Court of Appeals determined July 11 that a person must register as a sex offender in Texas if they were convicted of sexual abuse via Arizona law. Full Article
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Living with 290: U.S. Border Policies and Sex Offense Registration Killed My Love
Three weeks ago, my fiancé’s brother texted me saying that my fiancé, “Eric”, was killed in El Salvador. I cannot express how stunned, sad, and angry I am about my Love’s needless death. Eric grew up in America after his parents brought him, at age five, to the U.S.A. I was both his kindergarten and third grade teacher. Later, when he was a young man, to my regret and shame, Eric became the underaged so-called “victim” in my sex offense case. My psychologist reported us. I was given a one-year…
Read MoreMO: Sees statewide drop of unaccounted for sex offenders, 21 percent improvement reported
Fewer sex offenders are missing or unaccounted for in Missouri than in years past. Last year, State Auditor Nicole Galloway’s office found that 1,300 sex offenders weren’t properly registering on the state’s sex offender website. Tuesday Galloway said News 4 that law enforcement has reduced that number by 21 percent due to hard work and better accuracy. “The sex offender registry is a public safety tool. People expect it to be accurate,” she said. “If information is held by highway patrol or local law enforcement, it’s imperative that it’s accurate,…
Read MoreCO: State and local laws push more registered sex offenders into low-income communities
The laws requiring the names of convicted sex offenders nationwide to be catalogued, and available to the public, bear the names of children sexually assaulted and murdered by predators who had committed sex offenses before. The goal was to prevent the same from happening to other children. The Jacob Wetterling Act. Megan’s Law. The Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act. The intent of the laws may be unassailable. But throughout the country, they have largely sequestered sex offenders in low-income neighborhoods. Full Article
Read MoreNY: Cops Gave ____ A Pass While Making More Than 7,000 Arrests For Similar Offenses
The New York Police Department allowed wealthy financier and convicted sex offender ____ ____ to skip dozens of court-mandated check-ins with law enforcement for more than eight years before he was arrested and charged with the sex trafficking of minors, the Washington Post reported earlier this year. During roughly that same period, cops in New York state made at least 7,061 arrests for similar violations of the state’s complicated sex offender registration law, according to data obtained by HuffPost. Several of those arrests include people who committed minor violations, like…
Read MoreIL: Wayside residents sue City of Aurora, challenge state’s residency laws for registered sex offenders
The 19 child sex offenders who were told they must leave Wayside Cross Ministries by July 26 have filed a civil federal lawsuit against the city of Aurora, arguing the men should not have to move and challenging the state’s residency laws for registered sex offenders. Full Article
Read MoreMA: Doe v. Sex Offender Registry Board
The Supreme Judicial Court vacated and set aside a superior court judgment affirming a Sex Offender Registry Board (SORB) decision to classify John Doe as a level two sex offender, holding that there was not substantial evidence to support the hearing examiner’s decision to classify Doe as a level two sex offender by clear and convincing evidence. SORB classified Doe as a level two sex offender after Doe was convicted of two counts of open and gross lewdness. The superior court affirmed. The Supreme Judicial Court vacated the judgment, holding…
Read MoreJanice’s Journal: Georgia Law Punishes Registrants, Breaks Up Families
Registrants and their families are suffering in the State of Georgia. The cause of their greatest concern is a state law that prohibits anyone convicted of a sex offense that took place after July 1, 2008, from living, working or loitering within 1,000 feet of a long list of locations including schools, churches and any place “where children congregate”. As a result of this law, there are thousands of families in Georgia that are already homeless or could become homeless at a moment’s notice. One of those families includes a…
Read MoreThe Inequity of Sex Offender Registries
There are more than 900,000 people on the sex offenders registry and growing, but studies show that the sex offender registries do not reduce recidivism and prevent sex crimes and laws restricting where offenders can find housing and employment make it almost impossible for many on the registry to reintegrate into society, ostracizing them and essentially creating a life sentence for those who have already paid for their crimes and in some cases, first time offenders. Guy Hamilton-Smith, a legal fellow for the Sex Offense Litigation and Policy Resource Center…
Read MorePA: A Kidnapping Law Could Unravel a Life
Friday, June 21, started like any other day for ____ ____. The Shippensburg, Pennsylvania, resident finished his overnight shift at a food-packaging plant and stopped for breakfast around 7 a.m. before making his way home. While driving through town, ____, 22, saw a girl who he thought was a friend of his younger sister. Rain appeared imminent to ____ and there was a slight drizzle, so he stopped to ask if she needed a ride. When he pulled up beside the girl, he realized that she wasn’t his sister’s friend…
Read MoreSex Offender Registries Don’t Keep Kids Safe, But Politicians Keep Expanding Them Anyway
The first time ____ ____ got evicted was in 2015. He was living with his wife and two sons in suburban Nashville when his probation officer called his landlord and informed him that Winters was a registered sex offender. The previous year, when he was 24 years old, ____ had been arrested for downloading a three-minute porn clip. The file description said the girl in the video was 16; the prosecutor said she was 14. He was charged with attempted sexual exploitation of a minor and, because he had used…
Read MoreNM: ____ ____ Registered as a Sex Offender in 2 States. In New Mexico, He Didn’t Have To.
____ ____, the New York financier, managed to evade federal prosecution a decade ago in a Florida sex case involving dozens of teenage girls, in part by agreeing to register as a sex offender. But for a man with many residences, and many high-powered lawyers, registering as a sex offender was not the blanket penalty it might seem. Full Article Related New Mexico AG Wants New Sex Offender Law Amid Epstein Probe https://mobile.twitter.com/schwartzapfel/status/1149686629445111808
Read MoreCA: Organization protecting sex offenders’ rights continues statewide lawsuit campaign, sues Lompoc
An organization dedicated to protecting the rights of registered sex offenders is ion a campaign to sue cities throughout California with ordinances in place that it believes are unconstitutional. The city of Lompoc is one of the group’s most recent targets. Attorney Janice Bellucci, who is the founder and executive director of Alliance for Constitutional Sex Offense Laws, and anonymous Lompoc resident John Doe filed a lawsuit against the city in February. According to the complaint, the organization claims the city’s ordinance restricting where sex offenders can live violates state…
Read MoreGeneral Comments July 2019
Comments that are not specific to a certain post should go here, for the month of July 2019. 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 MoreCA: Assembly Committee Approves Senate Bill 145
Today the Assembly’s Public Safety Committee approved a newly amended version of Senate Bill 145 (SB 145) that eliminated all references to residency restrictions. Specifically, the newly amended version eliminated Sections 5, 6 and 7 of the bill. “This is a great victory for registrants and their families who no longer need to worry that SB 145 would cause them to be homeless,” stated ACSOL Executive Director Janice Bellucci. In the introduction of his bill, Senator Scott Wiener apologized to “everyone who could have been affected” for language in a…
Read MoreFL: DeBary ordinance expands sex offender regulations
DeBary’s City Council passed an ordinance expanding regulations over registered sex offenders. The ordinance bans registered sex offenders from community pools, water parks, school bus stops, and other private and public areas. The ordinance also increases the distance sex offenders can live from these places. Full Article
Read MoreTN: New Law Forces Dozens on Sex Offender Registry from their Homes [UPDATED 6/30/19]
UPDATE 6/30/19: Tennessee Judge Grants Temporary Restraining Order [floridaactioncommittee.org – 6/30/19] Original article: Last Sunday, Jason broke the news to his 7-year-old daughter: He’d be moving out. When a new Tennessee law goes into effect Monday, he will be barred from living with her. The law, Senate Bill 425, also forbids him from being alone with his daughter, meaning he can’t handle doctor’s appointments or pick her up from school, and he and his wife will need to hire childcare since she works full-time. His daughter cried when she…
Read MoreSCOTUS: 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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