Oscar Wilde, writing from his cell in the Reading Gaol where he was imprisoned for homosexuality at the end of the nineteenth century, observed that “society reserves for itself the right to inflict appalling punishments on the individual, but it also has the supreme vice of shallowness, and fails to realise what it has done. When the man’s punishment is over, it leaves him to himself; that is to say, it abandons him at the very moment when its highest duty towards him begins.” In America, few aspects of law…
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Case Spotlight: International Travel Notification
In 2011, the Supplemental Guidelines for Sex Offender Registration and Notification officially included in SORNA’s standards the obligation that jurisdictions require their registered sex offenders to provide 21 days’ notice of any international travel. However, before International Megan’s Law passed, it was difficult to federally prosecute sex offenders for failing to notify registration officials of intended international travel or relocation. For example, in Nichols v. United States, 136 S. Ct. 1113 (2016), the Supreme Court held that a sex offender could not be federally prosecuted for failure to register under…
Read MoreGeneral Comments August 2018
Comments that are not specific to a certain post should go here, for the month of August 2018. Contributions should relate to the cause and goals of this organization and please, keep it courteous and civil.
Read MoreFailure-to-Comply Arrests Reveal Flaws in Sex Offender Registries
In one Pennsylvania county, more than three times as many people on the registry were charged in 2016 with failing to follow registry requirements than were charged with a new sexual offense. Full Article
Read MoreEXPERT: CRIME REGISTRIES TURN PEOPLE INTO PARIAHS WITH ‘VERY LITTLE TO LOSE’
… While public sex offender registries are now required by federal law, other registries for people who have committed certain types of crimes—such as domestic violence or drug-related crimes—are on the rise. They are seen by some victims’ rights advocates as a way to protect the community. But, criminal justice advocates argue that the registries are just another way to assert control over people who have already served their time. With registries, the collateral consequences of incarceration can extend indefinitely. Full Article
Read MoreIs a life sentence for child sexual abuse just?
Arguably Chicago’s most notorious figure in the national Roman Catholic priest sex abuse scandal was committed indefinitely Wednesday to a state facility for sex offenders. In refusing to release ____ ____ under strict monitoring, Cook County Judge Dennis Porter noted that the defrocked priest had never cooperated with treatment or even admitted to a problem. Full Opinion Piece
Read MoreSex, Race, and the Law: Considering America ‘In the Dark’
[thenation.com – 7/18/18] If Childish Gambino’s song “This is America” and Boots Riley’s film Sorry to Bother You perfectly distill the absurd comedy and violent hell of the United States circa 2018, then Madeleine Baran’s In the Dark does the same in podcast form. The audio-documentary series dropped the haunting final episode of its second season earlier this month, and, like Donald Glover’s and Riley’s works, Baran’s opus lays bare the nexus of racial anxiety, guns, criminal “justice,” and capitalism in our nation. In the Dark is produced by APM…
Read MoreConference Call Audio for July 2018 Monthly Meeting uploaded
Please join me and ACSOL President Chance Oberstein, a criminal defense attorney, for our “monthly” meeting to be held telephonically. The conference call will be on Saturday, July 14 at 10 am Pacific Time (1:00 Eastern) and will last from 2 to 3 hours. Topics of conversation will include information about the domestic and overseas travel, the Tiered Registry, residency restrictions and other current topics as well as pending legal action throughout the nation. Please Show up, Stand up, and Speak up! Dial-in number: 1-712-770-8055 Conference Code: 983459 Listen to…
Read MoreFederal District Court Dismisses IML Challenge
A federal district court dismissed the recent IML challenge yesterday when it granted the government’s Motion to Dismiss a legal challenge to the International Megan’s Law (IML). That challenge, filed in January 2018, was based upon alleged violations by the State Department of the Administrative Procedure Act (APA). A link to the court’s decision follows below. Due to the court’s decision, the State Department is expected to expand its revocation of existing passports in order to add a “unique identifier” stating that the individual has been convicted of a sex…
Read MoreIML Judge Cancels Hearing on Motion to Dismiss
The federal judge to whom the IML lawsuit was assigned has canceled today’s hearing on the government’s Motion to Dismiss the entire case. According to Judge John F. Walter, he will make a decision based solely upon the documents filed both in support of, and in opposition to, that motion. The judge has no deadline by which he is required to make a decision on the motion. The judge’s decision on the government’s motion will be posted on this website as soon as it is available.
Read MoreGeneral Comments July 2018
Comments that are not specific to a certain post should go here, for the month of July 2018. Contributions should relate to the cause and goals of this organization and please, keep it courteous and civil.
Read MoreThomas Jefferson: America’s most esteemed child predator
[narsol.org – 7/4/18] By Robin Vander Wall . . . July 4th. A sex offender died today. Well, not precisely. But, on this day 192 years ago, a sex offender passed away. This was no common sex offender. In fact, he was more remarkable than most men who’ve ever lived. Governor of Virginia. Minister to France. First Secretary of State. Second Vice President. Third President of the United States. And, perhaps most importantly of all, the person responsible for writing the Declaration of Independence. Yes, Thomas Jefferson was a sex…
Read MoreWHY SEX OFFENDER REGISTRIES KEEP GROWING EVEN AS SEXUAL VIOLENCE RATES FALL
Quentin (not his real name) was convicted eight years ago of child pornography possession in Florida. He served his time and has since moved to another state. But his sentence required his photo and other personal details to appear on Florida’s sex offender registry, and there they will stay for the rest of his life, even if he never sets foot in the state again. Full Article
Read MoreOffenderWatch, Largest Sex Offender Registry Network in the U.S., Launches International Division (Press Release)
According to a report from the Ministry of Justice, the number of jailed registered sex offenders in England and Wales rose 82 percent from 2007–2017. As the number of sex offenders continues to rise, maintaining a unified and accurate sex offender registry is an important issue to many residents. The largest sex offender registry network in the United States, OffenderWatch, recently announced a new international division devoted to helping countries across the globe maintain a sex offender registry database that is easily shared between law enforcement agencies and can help…
Read MoreSex Offender Registries: Common Sense or Nonsense?
In October 1989, 11-year-old Jacob Wetterling was kidnapped at gunpoint and never seen again. When the boy’s mother, Patty Wetterling, learned that her home state of Minnesota did not have a database of possible suspects—notably convicted sex offenders—she set out to make a change. Wetterling’s efforts led to the passage of the Jacob Wetterling Crimes Against Children and Sexually Violent Offender Registration Act, which was signed into federal law by President Bill Clinton in 1994. Jacob’s Law was the first effort to establish a nationwide registry of convicted sex offenders,…
Read MoreChallenging the Punitiveness of ‘New-Generation’ SORN Laws (Paper)
Sex offender registration and notification (SORN) laws have been in effect nationwide since the 1990s, and publicly available registries today contain information on hundreds of thousands of individuals. To date, most courts, including the Supreme Court in 2003, have concluded that the laws are regulatory, not punitive, in nature, allowing them to be applied retroactively consistent with the Ex Post Facto Clause. Recently, however, several state supreme courts, as well as the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, addressing challenges lodged against new-generation SORN laws of a considerably more onerous and…
Read MoreGeneral Comments June 2018
Comments that are not specific to a certain post should go here, for the month of June 2018. Contributions should relate to the cause and goals of this organization and please, keep it courteous and civil.
Read MoreSex Offender Ponzi Scheme
[dsdaughtry.wordpress.com – 5/28/18] Ponzi schemes are investment strategies where individuals help facilitate other like-minded individuals by purchasing or acquiring an idea or product with the hopes of an economic safety and security outcomes. These elaborate schemes take time to manifest and mature. Those that refuse or suspicious are usually labeled as missing an opportunity of a lifetime or misanthropic. Once the moment of collapse of Ponzi schemes unravels then does the distrust of those that invested harming families, security, public trust, and overall accountability. The most massive Ponzi scheme that…
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