Comments that are not specific to a certain post should go here, for the month of July 2021. 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 MoreCategory: General News
FAC YouTube video channel includes ACSOL members and other notables
[ACSOL] Florida Action Committee has a YouTube channel that posts facts and disputes myths regarding those convicted of a sex offense, and includes many notable people. Feel free to subscribe to their channel. I highly recommend you watch ACSOL board member Ira Ellman’s video on his topic of “Frightening and High is a Myth“, which is less than 10 minutes long. – Janice FAC’s YouTube Channel FAC’s description of their YouTube Channel
Read MoreCO: Supreme Court’s decision on sex offense registry leaves some eyeing a broader constitutional challenge
Although the Colorado Supreme Court insisted its ruling applied narrowly, advocates for defendants believe the justices have laid a foundation for challenging the constitutionality of the state’s sex offense registration laws more broadly. On Monday, the Court decided by 6-1 that it violates the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment for Colorado to require repeat juveniles convicted of a sex offense to register for life on the sex offense registry without possibility of removal. Justice Monica M. Márquez, writing for the majority, found one overriding principle that guided the…
Read MoreUrgent: SCOTUS petition needs signatures now
This note is for all organizations and individuals that fight (each in their own way) against the draconian sex offense laws in this country. Please forward this email to any pertinent organization or individual that we may have unintentionally overlooked. To those of you who don’t know us, we are the parents of an incarcerated son who, in 2016 was sentenced to 14 years in federal prison for a crime without a victim; for a nonviolent, non-contact, first offense; for the crime of falling prey to the manipulative tactics of seasoned…
Read MoreCan Children Who Commit Sex Offenses Be Rehabilitated?
By John Borneman 29 JUN 2018 In the first season of Showtime’s Dexter, the character Dexter Morgan, a vigilante serial killer who also works for the fictitious Miami Metro police as a forensic technician, hunts a child molester who had escaped justice and the law. After nearly strangling his prey, Dexter yells, “Open your eyes and look at what you did!” The molester, a choir director who also murdered some of the young boys he assaulted, cries, “I couldn’t help myself. … Please, you have to understand.” Dexter replies, “Trust me,…
Read MoreNY: Commission on Prosecutorial Conduct
This has been a long 8-year fight to hold prosecutors accountable for professional misconduct that steals liberty from the innocent, leaves the true criminal on the streets and costs municipalities millions in wrongful conviction settlements
Read MoreFL: Every Parent’s Worst Nightmare
We’ve all heard the phrase “every parent’s worst nightmare” in the context of a person with a sex offense conviction. It usually conjures the image of an abduction and sexual assault and murder. But for every parent who happens to be required to register due to a past sex offense, our “parent’s worst nightmare” is that one day, some law will come out that will take our own children away from us. We are facing our worst nightmare. Monday, Governor Ron DeSantis signed HB 141 into Law. The bill, titled,…
Read MoreFL: DeSantis signs bill closing sex-offense registration loophole
ALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) — Governor Ron DeSantis signed a bill into law Tuesday effectively closing a loophole in Florida’s sexual offense registration law. The former law’s loophole allowed a person convicted of a sex crime to forgo registering because they didn’t pay a court-ordered fine. In 2020, a judge ruled that Ray La Vel James of Tampa, who spent 12 years in prison after being convicted of molesting two girls at a public pool, didn’t have to register as a sex offender because the law states registration isn’t required until a…
Read MoreUK: People convicted of a sex offense may have ‘danger warnings’ stamped on passports and driving licences
Source: essexlive.news 6/20/21 Labour is calling for the change People convicted of a sex offense may have a ‘danger warning’ stamped on their passports and drivers licences, it has been reported. Labour MP Sarah Champion is calling on the DVLA and the passport office to mark the files of 100,000 people who are listed on the registry as having a sex offense conviction. The MP for Rotherham hopes the change will close a loophole whereby paedophiles change their names so that crimes do not show up during Disclosure and Barring…
Read MoreNJ: Murphy signs historic law banning landlords from asking renters about criminal records (except…)
In a step toward racial equity and ending housing discrimination, Gov. Phil Murphy on Friday signed the Fair Chance in Housing Act, barring landlords in New Jersey from asking about criminal history on housing applications. At the state’s first commemoration of Juneteenth as an official holiday, Murphy signed the historic “ban the box” bill (A1919), which advocates say is the most sweeping form of the law in the nation. “With today’s action, Governor Murphy has put New Jersey at the forefront of criminal justice reform by helping to dismantle the…
Read MoreHow a suicidal pizza man found himself ensnared in an FBI sting
This isn’t a story about the police stings that we are all too familiar with. But it is another example of how the FBI goes too far with sting operations. This is based on a story on CNN.com back in 2017 Every day was the same for Rayyan, 21, a depressed pizza delivery man from Dearborn Heights, Michigan. Working for a pizzeria in Detroit, he’d drive late nights on desolate inner city streets, smoking pot hoping to keep boredom at bay. He carried a pistol to protect himself from robbers.…
Read MoreCO: Supreme Court exempts people listed on registry from key 2019 decision
Ruling in 2019 prohibits sentencing defendants to prison followed by probation in same criminal case The Colorado Supreme Court on Monday exempted people with a sex offense conviction from a key 2019 decision that prohibited defendants from being sentenced to prison followed by probation in the same criminal case. People with a sex offense conviction in Colorado can face such punishment in some circumstances, the justices found in a pair of opinions that examined how the state’s sentencing laws for sex offenses drastically differ from sentencing for other crimes. The…
Read MoreCA: Public Defender Offices Available to Assist Registrants Petition for Removal
Twenty public defender offices have made resources available to help registrants petition for removal from the registry. Below is a link to a list of those offices. Missing from the list is Los Angeles County, however, both San Diego and San Francisco counties are included on the list. Click here to see the list. This will also be available in the Resources menu
Read MoreGeneral Comments June 2021
Comments that are not specific to a certain post should go here, for the month of June 2021. 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 MoreNY: My Parishioner Was Not Sentenced to Death. He Still Died.
By Steven Paulikas, Mr. Paulikas is an Episcopal priest. Witnessing unwarranted suffering is a solemn duty of the priesthood. But when one of my parishioners died of Covid-19 in a New York State prison, I felt the need to not only witness but to also tell the story he no longer can — the story of a prison system that failed to protect his life and the lives of so many others in its care, subjecting them to confusion, fear and even death. This man committed a crime and was…
Read MoreFL: DoC is Planning to Charge people in prison to Receive Mail
Orlando Sentinel, May 29 FDC will hold a public hearing June 11 at 1 p.m. Eastern Time Officials with the Florida Department of Corrections plan to almost completely digitize mail sent to state prisons by photocopying every card, letter or picture and providing it instead electronically to incarcerated people — a change that families and prison reform advocates argue could create more hurdles for maintaining connections with people in prison, as well as add additional burdens and costs to them and their loved ones. The plan, which was announced this…
Read MoreSeventh Circuit: Indiana’s Sex Offender Registration Act’s ‘Other Jurisdiction Requirement’ Unconstitutional Violation of Right to Travel
by Douglas Ankney The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit upheld U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana’s opinion that found a provision of Indiana’s Sex Offender Registration Act (“SORA”) requiring registration of Plaintiffs who relocated to Indiana after SORA’s enactment violated their right to travel because the provision wouldn’t have required them to register if they had committed their offenses while residents of Indiana. Plaintiffs Brian Hope, Gary Snider, Joseph Standish, Patrick Rice, Adam Bash, and Scott Rush (collectively, “Plaintiffs”) filed suit against the Commissioner…
Read MoreGeneral Comments May 2021
Comments that are not specific to a certain post should go here, for the month of May 2021. 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.
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