Category: General News

OH: 2 police officers being investigated after telling a father his 11-year-old daughter could face child porn charges for sending images to a man online

R H

Source: cnn.com 9/21/23 The police chief in Columbus, Ohio, is condemning an incident in which two officers told a father his 11-year-old daughter could face child porn charges for sending images to a man online. Chief Elaine Bryant said as soon as the department learned of the incident, captured on doorbell camera video, it “immediately reached out to the father to apologize, and to assure him that this matter was being fully investigated – both the actions of this officer, and more importantly, any crime committed against his child.” Bryant…

Read More

KY: “Tough on Crime” Republican Attorney General Candidate Is Soft on Sex Offenders

R H

Source: newrepublic.com 9/12/23 Russell Coleman’s bid to become Kentucky’s top lawyer has dredged up a troubling record of lenience. The Republican candidate for Kentucky attorney general, Russell Coleman, is campaigning on a promise to be tough on crime, particularly crimes against children. But before running for attorney general, he served as U.S. attorney for the western district of Kentucky—and a closer look at his track record there shows a frightening laxity regarding sex offenders. Coleman’s campaign comes at a time when state attorneys general exert increasing influence over how laws…

Read More

The Artifice Girl: A movie showing how an AI program could bait and trap predators

R H

Source: imdb.com  Movie description (fiction): “A team of special agents discovers a revolutionary new computer program to bait and trap online predators. After teaming up with the program’s troubled developer, they soon find that the AI is rapidly advancing beyond its original purpose.” Read the full article Related reality articles: AI Generated Images Are Being Used To Catch Online Sexual Predators [sydneycriminallawyers.com.au 5/27/23] Utah company uses AI to catch online predators [ksl.com 6/20/23] D.I.G. AI system used to find sex traffickers [computer.org] Predicting a predator: Purdue AI tool identifies online…

Read More

How the Supreme Court has promoted myths about sex offense registries

webmaster

Twenty years ago, the justices deemed registration preventive rather than punitive. By  Jacob Sullum   Mar 1, 2023, 12:30pm CDT This Sunday, March 5, marks the 20th anniversary of Smith v. Doe, a U.S. Supreme Court decision that approved retroactive application of Alaska’s sex offense registry, deeming it preventive rather than punitive. That ruling helped propagate several pernicious myths underlying a policy that every state has adopted without regard to its justice or effectiveness. Writing for the majority in Smith, Justice Anthony Kennedy took it for granted that collecting and disseminating information…

Read More

Discounts Available at Conference Hotel

R H

Discounts are now available at the Normandie Hotel which is located at 605 South Normandie in Los Angeles.  The hotel is near to Southwestern Law School, the site of this year’s conference.  In order to take advantage of the discounts, you can make a reservation by calling the hotel at 213-388-8138 or by reserving a room online at www.hotelnormandiela.com.  When booking a room at the hotel, please provide the code “FSFE23” for a discounted rate.   The conference will begin on Saturday, October 14, at 9 a.m. and end on Sunday,…

Read More

US cannot disarm people convicted of non-violent crimes – federal appeals court ruled

webmaster

(Reuters) -The U.S. government cannot ban people convicted of non-violent crimes from possessing guns, a federal appeals court ruled on Tuesday. The 11-4 ruling from the Philadelphia-based 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is the latest defeat for gun control laws in the wake of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling last year expanding gun rights nationwide. The decision stems from a 2020 lawsuit by a Pennsylvania man, Bryan Range, who was barred under federal law from possessing a gun after pleading guilty to welfare fraud. He claimed the prohibition violated…

Read More

New California Appellate Court Ruling Could Have Deadly Consequences

webmaster

A San Francisco Appellate Court recently ruled that parole agents do not have to comply with the knock-notice rule under Penal Code section 1531 when making routine parole-compliance checks. They are now permitted to barge into a parolee’s residence without first knocking and announcing their presence. This shocking new decision runs counter to previous court rulings that held that parole agents must comply with the knock-notice law for parole and even probation searches. Unfortunately, this new ruling could have deadly consequences. On March 13, 2020, while executing a “no-knock” search warrant at…

Read More

Exposure to HIV Removed from Offenses Requiring Sex Offender Registration in Tennessee 

webmaster

People living with HIV convicted of criminal exposure can request to terminate registration requirements with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (NEW YORK) – On May 17, 2023, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee signed Senate Bill 0807/House Bill 832 into law after it passed the House and Senate in April. The law removes criminal exposure to HIV from the list of violent sexual offenses where a conviction required an individual to register as a sex offender for life. The law will go into effect on July 1, 2023.  Tennessee is one of 30 states that have…

Read More

PARSOL Responds to May 23, 2023 SCOPA Hearing

webmaster

HARRISBURG, PA – The Pennsylvania Association for Rational Sexual Offense Laws (PARSOL) strongly urges the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania to uphold Chester County Judge Allison Bell Royer’s finding in the case of Comm. v. George Torsilieri that Pennsylvania’s Megan’s Law Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA) is unconstitutional.  Royer found that “SORNA is unconstitutional both facially and as applied to this Defendant on the bases that it employs an irrebuttable presumption that is not universally applicable and because its punitive nature offends Alleyne and Apprendi; results in a criminal…

Read More

SORNA Case Update: Hearing Set For June 5

webmaster

There is an update in the pending case challenging the SORNA regulations.  The federal government has withdrawn its appeal of the Preliminary Injunction, however, the federal government is continuing to pursue a motion to dismiss the case.   Although both the federal government and the plaintiffs have waived oral argument regarding that motion, the judge has scheduled a hearing on that motion during which oral argument may be required for June 5 at 9 a.m.  Plaintiffs are required to file their brief opposing the motion to dismiss no later than April…

Read More

Marjorie Taylor Greene shocks Lesley Stahl by saying Joe Biden supports pedophilia

R H

Source: lgbtqnation.com 4/3/23 During an appearance on CBS’s television magazine 60 Minutes, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) called Democrats – and even President Joe Biden – supporters of pedophilia. “Greene complains that the news media harp on things she did in the past,” Stahl says in a voiceover. “Like, as in this video, chasing after a survivor of the Parkland, Florida school shooting… and things she says that are over the top, like…” “‘The Democrats are a party of pedophiles,’” Stahl says, quoting Greene from an April 2022 interview. “I…

Read More

CA Sex Offender Management Board Discusses Further Improvements to Tiered Registry Law

webmaster

The California Sex Offender Management Board (CASOMB) continued today its discussions of improvements to the Tiered Registry Law during its regularly scheduled monthly meeting.  During those discussions, CASOMB identified three improvements to that law as their top priorities — removal of CP offenses from Tier 3, creating an off-ramp for those assigned to Tier 3 and allowing registrants to access their profiles on the Megan’s Law website.   Also during those discussions, CASOMB determined that “deeper study” is required before they can make a recommendation regarding either the reduction of PC…

Read More

ACSOL President Catherine Carpenter Identifies, Analyzes Method to Win Court Cases

webmaster

ACSOL President Catherine Carpenter, who is also an endowed law professor at Southwestern School of Law in Los Angeles, has identified and analyzed a method that can be used to win registrants’ cases in court.  That method, known as the irrebuttable presumption doctrine, shifts the burden of proof to governments when they make allegations such  as that all registrants pose a current danger to society and are very likely to re-offend. “Professor Carpenter has provided an extremely valuable tool to the registrant community in the research she has conducted that…

Read More

WI: MURPHY’S LAW: Supreme Court Race All About Sex Offenders

webmaster

Which is strange because the state high court will probably never rule on such cases. Just one day after the February 21 primary election, state Supreme Court candidate Janet Protasiewicz released her first ad for the general election, an attack on her opponent Dan Kelly entitled “Predator.” “Dan Kelly won’t keep our communities safe,” the ever-ominous voice of such ads informed us. “As a lawyer Kelly defended child sex predators who posed as ministers in order to prey on vulnerable young girls.” The ad goes on, adding more lurid detail,…

Read More

CA Court Blocks DOJ’s new SORNA Rule Because it Violated Due Process and First Amendment

webmaster

Los Angeles: A California court last week blocked the Department of Justice’s new Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act rule because it violated due process and the First Amendment. “The DOJ almost never loses these cases. That they lost here goes to show just how far out on a limb the DOJ is with this rule,” said Caleb Kruckenberg, an attorney at Pacific Legal Foundation. “The rule clearly violated due process and free speech protections. And while the court felt bound by precedent to conclude that the rule didn’t violate the…

Read More

Court Grants Partial Motion for Preliminary Injunction in SORNA Regulations Case

webmaster

A federal district court today issued a decision granting, in part, a motion for preliminary injunction that was pending in the SORNA regulations case. A copy of the court’s decision is being posted today on the ACSOL website, however, ACSOL must wait until the Pacific Legal Foundation (PLF) issues a press release before it publishes an article describing the court’s decision. PLF  issued a press release regarding the decision on Wednesday, January 18.  A copy of that press release is posted here on the ACSOL website.   Download the PDF…

Read More

Stars of 1968’s ‘Romeo and Juliet’ sue Paramount over nude scenes filmed when they were minors

R H

Source: cnn.com 1/4/23 Actors from the 1968 film “Romeo and Juliet” have filed a lawsuit against Paramount Studios, which produced the film, for allowing the movie to be released with scenes showing them nude when they were minors. The lawsuit, filed last week in Santa Monica Superior Court by stars Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting, accuses Paramount of sexual exploitation and distributing nude images of adolescent children. In a copy of the suit provided to CNN, the complaint alleges that the film’s director Franco Zeffirelli, who died in 2019 and…

Read More

Frank Lindsay’s Health Continues to Improve

webmaster

1/21/23 UPDATE: Frank Lindsay continues to heal outside the hospital. He requires oxygen 24/7 and is undergoing physical therapy. Frank received his tier assignment earlier this month and his petition for removal has been filed in the county where he resides. With luck and prayers, Frank will be off the registry as well as free from the use of oxygen tanks before the 4th of July.   Original post: ACSOL leader Frank Lindsay’s health continues to improve although he remains hospitalized due to low oxygen levels. Frank was initially hospitalized…

Read More