When I received shift report for my very ill, bed-bound patient, the RN giving report pointed out the tracker affixed to his anklet. She had admitted him a few hours earlier and did not know the details and there was nothing noted in his chart. Before she left, she looked online and he is a convicted sex offender (lewd and lascivious with a minor under the age of 14). Is it appropriate to add this new information (pedophilia) to your shift report? To his chart? Discussion on Nursing Forum
Read MoreCategory: General News
PA: Ruling raises questions about sex offender registry’s future
Changes are coming to Pennsylvania’s sex offender registry as a result of a Pennsylvania Supreme Court decision issued this week, but experts say it’s unclear exactly how they will play out. Full Article
Read MoreSex offender consequences in the Supreme Court – what’s ahead?
“The Supreme Court’s Mixed Signals in Packingham” is the title of a thoughtful comment by Bidish Sarma analyzing the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Packingham v. North Carolina, recently published on the American Constitution Society website. (An early analysis of the Packingham decision by Wayne Logan appeared on this site on June 20.) Mr. Sarma proposes that “the time has come to ask whether society’s ‘war’ on sex offenders who have already completed criminal sentences has gone too far.” Full Article
Read MoreMO: Court backs confining sex offenders indefinitely
The Missouri Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday that a state law allowing sex offenders to be committed indefinitely to mental institutions after prison is constitutional. Full Article
Read MoreAirbnb uses background checks to weed out sex offenders
… With so many guests coming in and out of neighborhoods there are concerns about criminals, including sex offenders renting homes next to families who do not know the sex offender is there. Tennessee law requires sex offenders to register with the Davidson County Sheriff’s Office within 48 hours of “establishing a physical presence at a particular location.” If that person is only in town for 24 hours, they could fly under the radar. Full Article
Read MoreDOJ urges SCOTUS not to review Sixth Circuit panel decision finding retroactive application of Michigan sex offender law unconstitutional
As reported in this post from last summer, a Sixth Circuit panel concluded in Does v. Snyder, No. 15-1536 (6th Cir. Aug. 25, 2016) (available here), that Michigan’s amendments to its Sex Offender Registration Act (SORA) “imposes punishment” and thus the state violates the US Constitution when applying these SORA provisions retroactively. Michigan appealed this decision to the US Supreme Court, and SCOTUS in March asked for the US Acting Solicitor General to express its views on the case. Yesterday, the Acting SG filed this brief with SCOTUS stating that in “the view of the United States, the…
Read MoreHouston federal judge revokes sex offender’s naturalized citizenship
A federal judge this week approved an order revoking the naturalized citizenship of a Harris County man convicted of a sex offense more than 20 years earlier, one of a growing number of immigrants stripped of citizenship in a push that began in the final years of the Obama administration. Full Article
Read MoreSex offender rules need to be revisited (Letter to the Editor)
Surely there needs to be a lot of changes made in the sex offender registry. I heard about a man in his early thirties who committed some sort of a sex crime. This young man wanted to become a male nurse. But because of his record, he could not get into nurse’s training. He paid an attorney $2,000 for his service, but his case is still pending. It went all the way to the governor two years ago, and the governor has not taken action to seal his records. This…
Read MoreGeneral Comments July 2017
Comments that are not specific to a certain post should go here, for the month of July 2017. Contributions should relate to the cause and goals of this organization and please, keep it courteous and civil.
Read MoreNARSOL calls on Zuckerberg, Facebook to change policy
Having already contacted Mark Zuckerberg by letter dated June 27, 2017, NARSOL has now released a nationwide press release hoping to bring additional pressure upon the social media giant to cease its nearly nine-year-old practice of barring registered citizens from creating or maintaining Facebook user accounts. Full Press Release Related How Would You Feel If Facebook Ended the Ban on Sex Offenders?
Read MoreSCOTUS: Sex Offenders Can Access Facebook, High Court Says
Sex offenders who have already served their sentences enjoy a First Amendment right to use social networking websites like Facebook or Twitter, according to a June 19 ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court ( Packingham v. North Carolina , 2017 BL 208397, U.S., No. 15-1194, 6/19/17 ). … But Ira Ellman, a law professor at Arizona State University Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law, Phoenix, said one line in the majority opinion could be an indication that the court is going to grant certiorari in a case that deals with other types of lifestyle…
Read MoreSCOTUS Symposium: Packingham and Fact-Checking the Supreme Court
Last week’s decision in Packingham v. North Carolina is getting a lot of attention in part because of this fact checker column in the Washington Post. Packingham involved a challenge to a North Carolina law that severely restricted the ability of registered sex offenders to access various websites, including Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. All eight participating Justices agreed that the law violated the First Amendment because it was unable to satisfy intermediate scrutiny. Although the Court acknowledged that protecting children from sex offenders was a legitimate government interest, the law…
Read MoreThe Sex Offender: the 21st Century Witch
At the end of May, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives passed H.R.1761, the “Protecting Against Child Exploitation Act of 2017.” It is intended “to criminalize the knowing consent of the visual depiction, or live transmission, of a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct.” Going further, those convicted of such a practice would “be fined and imprisoned not less than 15 years nor more than 30 years, 25 years nor more than 50 if two or more prior offenses and would get 35 years to life, and 30 years to life if a…
Read MoreJustice Alito’s misleading claim about sex offender rearrests
“Repeat sex offenders pose an especially grave risk to children. ‘When convicted sex offenders reenter society, they are much more likely than any other type of offender to be rearrested for a new rape or sexual assault.’” –Supreme Court Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., concurring opinion in Packingham v. North Carolina, June 19, 2017 Full Article Video Related Fact-Checking the Fact Checker A misdirected attack on two notable sentences in Justice Alito’s Packingham concurrence
Read MoreMO: Woman discovers sex offender using her address for registry, has to fight to remove it
What would you do if you discovered your house was wrongly listed on a statewide registry as the home of a sex offender? That’s exactly what happened to a Missouri woman who has been fighting for months to get the mistake corrected. Full Article
Read MorePredator with a Popsicle? Our Crazy Fear of The Ice Cream Man
Paul DiMarco has been selling ice cream in Poughkeepsie, New York, for two decades. He owns a fleet of trucks. When one mom confided to him, “You gotta be careful because there’s a lot of pedophiles in this world,” he recalls replying, “That attitude falls into the same category as ‘All black people that drive Cadillacs are pimps,’ and ‘All clowns kill little kids.’” Full Article
Read MoreNY: Polygraph Therapy Faces Scrutiny in Child Porn Case
After a critical hearing in New York, a spotlight is taking shape on the utility of “therapeutic polygraphs,” a treatment the U.S. probation system has used for decades on sex offenders. Full Article
Read MoreOne Strike and You’re Out: Is Redemption Possible for Luke Heimlich?
Luke Heimlich made this week after a missed registration deadline presented the Oregonian with an opportunity to revisit his past misdeed. Until his past was dredged up, Luke, a rising college baseball player, was slated to be a first day pick for the major league amateur draft. Predictably, there was immediate backlash with people crucifying Luke for his supposed duplicity and calling for more punishment. Then on Friday, Luke released a statement in which he excused himself from playing in the super regionals. The extremely harsh public reaction to Luke’s…
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