A man who admitted killing a convicted sex offender in a flat fire in Worcester has been jailed for 10 years. Daniel Martin, 25, set fire to a wheelie bin and pushed it up against the front door of ____ ____’s flat in the early hours of December 14, 2011, sparking a rapidly spreading and ferocious blaze in which the 52-year-old was killed. Sentencing Martin for manslaughter at Birmingham Crown Court, Mrs Justice Thirlwall said the crime was “shockingly stupid”. She said he had intended “to do something so frightening, it…
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Ex-San Jose officer cops plea over teen’s pics
… As a condition of his plea to a felony charge of distributing or exhibiting harmful matter to a minor, ____ has resigned from the department where he had served for eight years, authorities said. When ____ is sentenced, the judge will determine if the conviction will be reduced to a misdemeanor, in which case ____ would not have to register as a sex offender for life. Full Article
Read MoreAR: Sex Offenders, Experts Question Effectiveness of New Restrictions
LITTLE ROCK, AR – After serving their time, some sex offenders can be on another list for the rest of their lives. Convicted sex offenders are required to register with their local law enforcement office for at least 15 years, often much longer than that. Now some registered sex offenders and their families are saying this branding is doing more harm than good. Full Article
Read MoreOR: Sex offenders commute to easy registration sites
… Recently, Fairview Police Chief Ken Johnson reported an unusually high number of sex offenders registering in Fairview. Even more odd, a majority of them don’t live in Fairview, but are arriving from Portland and elsewhere within Multnomah County. Full Article
Read MoreCO: Denver Post article, shows eight amendment violation, for lack of treatment
An article in the Denver Post on November 3, 2013 was titled “Unintended effect of 1998 Colorado law: More sex offenders in for life”. This article brought to light that Colorado has not been offering treatment, as is required by law to people who have been sentenced for crimes. These people can only be released after receiving effective treatment and the state is not offering that treatment supposedly because of facilities and financial issues. Full Article
Read MoreStatic-99 developers embrace redemption – Sex offender risk plummets over time in community, new study reports
And now — drum roll — the authors of the most widely used actuarial tool for assessing sex offender recidivism are conceding that even sex offenders cross a “redemption threshold” over time, such that their risk of committing a new sexual crime may become “indistinguishable from the risk presented by non-sexual offenders.” Tracking a large group of 7,740 sexual offenders drawn from 21 different samples around the world, the researchers found that those who remain free in the community for five years or more after their release are at drastically…
Read MoreTX: Is the public sex offender registry fair?
Kids across Southeast Texas are gearing up for Halloween, and with the holiday season upon us, parents should be aware of who lives in the homes their children are visiting. As part of a special report, 12News has researched which cities in SETX have the most registered sex offenders per capita. According to city-data.com, Woodville has the highest percentage, with one in every 79 residents being a registered sex offender. Next is Kountze, with one in every 86 residents being an offender. Third is Buna, with one sex offender for…
Read MoreWI: Sex offender ordinance is working, Sheboygan officials say
Five years after Sheboygan first enacted strict limits on sex offenders seeking to live here, the city’s sex offender population has slowly waned, with the city now denying about a quarter of all residency requests it receives, records show. The 2008 ordinance essentially barred most registered sex offenders from living here without first receiving a waiver from a city committee and ultimately the Common Council. Since then, the city’s sex offender population has fallen by 13 percent, state records show, with 184 offenders now living at a Sheboygan address — some…
Read MoreCanada: Trouble with registries
On Sept. 16, Prime Minister Harper promised Canadians a national, online database accessible to the public listing the names of high-risk child sex-offenders to replace a patchwork of existing databases. Another proposed change announced by him would have such offenders planning to travel outside the country alert Canadian authorities before they leave, and who, in turn, may warn destination countries. The prime minister said this registry will come into effect in this session of Parliament. The problem with sex registries! Not only are these registries notoriously incomplete but they are also…
Read MoreTX: Online solicitation statute ruled unconstitutional
In a surprising decision – both for its unanimous outcome and the unlikely reference to Miley Cyrus “twerking” in a Texas judicial opinion – the Court of Criminal Appeals today declared Texas Penal Code §33.021(b), criminalizing online solicitation of a minor, “facially unconstitutional” in a habeas corpus writ styled Ex Parte John Christopher Lo. See their unanimous opinion (pdf) written by Judge Cathy Cochran which ruled that the statute is “overbroad because it prohibits a wide array of constitutionally protected speech and is not narrowly drawn to achieve only the legitimate objective of…
Read MoreCO: Unintended effect of 1998 law: More sex offenders in for life
In Colorado prisons, the number of men and women serving life sentences for sex offenses today is 41 times greater than that of just 14 years ago. On the roster of lifers, sex offenders now outnumber everyone else — killers, kidnappers, armed robbers, arsonists, habitual offenders, adults who fatally abuse children. Sixty-three percent of all Colorado prisoners sentenced to life are sex offenders, a figure that is more than four times the national average. This wasn’t supposed to happen. The sponsor of a 1998 law providing lifetime supervision of sex…
Read More‘Operation Boo’ nets convicted pedophiles
PASADENA, Calif. (KABC) — Police officers and parole agents were out in force in the San Gabriel Valley on Halloween night, making sure convicted pedophiles weren’t trying to lure trick-or-treaters into their homes. It was all part of “Operation Boo.” At a motel in El Monte, officers arrested a registered sex offender. Authorities say he violated his parole by keeping Halloween candies in his room. “This (candy) is what we were looking for, and he had it in a way where you could distribute it to trick-or-treaters,” state parole agent Bernard Villa…
Read MoreAZ: Professor – Halloween sex offender scare is a myth (CBS5 News)
PHOENIX (CBS5) – It’s something you hear about every Halloween – to be on the lookout for convicted sex offenders preying on Valley children. But CBS 5 News has learned that the Halloween sex offender scare may be just a myth. CBS 5 News contacted law enforcement agencies in Phoenix, Mesa, Glendale, Peoria, Scottsdale and Surprise. None of the police departments have reported any problems involving a sex offender and children on Halloween, over the past five years. Full Article
Read MoreGeneral Comments November 2013
Comments that are not specific to a certain post should go here, for the month of November 2013. Contributions should relate to the cause and goals of this organization and please, keep it courteous and civil.
Read MoreConservative Governors Take On the Mugshot Racket
Last week, a New York Times article titled “Mugged by a Mugshot Online” described the dubious business of mugshot extortion. Dozens of companies acquire the post-arrest mugshots — which are public records — of individuals who may or may not have been convicted. They then post the pictures on a website and charge a fee — sometimes in the hundreds of dollars — for removal. Moreover, even the payment of the fee doesn’t necessarily stop a website’s owner from launching a new site, reposting the same mugshot, and demanding yet another fee…
Read MoreSex Offender Residency Restrictions Serve No Purpose
Under Jessica’s Law, sex offenders in San Francisco are barred from residing within two thousand feet of any school or park where children regularly gather. Due to San Francisco’s limited size and dense population, it is nearly impossible to find housing outside of this restricted zone. Consequently, the number of homeless sex offenders living in San Francisco has surged since the implementation of the restriction. This unintended consequence has led to multiple challenges to the restriction’s constitutionality and effectiveness. Full Article
Read MoreSexting scandal exposed: 30 teen girls in 7 San Diego schools, felony charges
A sexting scandal which began when a dozen San Diego teen girls sent nude photos of themselves to their boyfriends is a rude awakening that sending nude pictures on the internet is considered a criminal offense. “Police say possessing and distributing these types of images is considered child pornography and is against the law,” reported San Diego’s 10News on Oct. 30, 2013. Full Article More: http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/Charges-To-Be-Filed-in-Teen-Sexting-Ring-229646361.html?_osource=SocialFlowFB_SDBrand
Read MoreHalloween Sex Offender Laws Are Unjustified
Kids aren’t the only ones letting their imaginations’ fears run wild on Halloween: parents, politicians, and police officers across the country are continuing to support laws that ban registered sex offenders from participating in Halloween, despite evidence that these policies are unnecessary and harmful. Full Article
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