TX: HB 1401 would require any educator convicted of such offenses to register as a sex offender

Source: tylerpaper.com 12/22/24 An East Texas state representative is working toward holding educators more accountable. Recently, there’s been multiple cases of teachers accused of having improper relationships with students in East Texas. House Bill 1401 aims to protect students and have stricter regulations on these incidents. After a teacher at a local high school was sentenced to several years in prison for having an improper relationship with a student and not having to register as a sex offender, Palestine Police Chief Mark Harcrow knew something had to be done. “It…

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U.S. Sentencing Commission Seeks Comment on Proposals to Promote Public Safety and Simplify Federal Sentencing

Source: U.S. Sentencing Commission 12/19/24 WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today the bipartisan United States Sentencing Commission voted unanimously to publish proposed amendments to the federal sentencing guidelines for the amendment cycle ending May 1, 2025. These proposals stem from public input the Commission has received in recent years, including more than 1,200 pages of comments on what work the agency should prioritize this amendment cycle. Among today’s proposals are those that would:  create an alternative to the “categorical approach” used in the career offender guideline to determine whether a conviction qualifies a…

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NC: Crystal Mangum admits to fabricating 2006 Duke lacrosse scandal accusations

Source:  dukechronicle.com 12/12/24 Crystal Mangum, the woman who falsely accused three Duke men’s lacrosse players of rape in 2006, admitted she lied about the allegations and asked for David Evans, Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann’s forgiveness. Mangum made her confession in an interview published Wednesday on “Let’s Talk with Kat,” hosted by Katerena DePasquale, at the North Carolina Correctional Institution for Women. Unrelated to the lacrosse case, Mangum is currently in prison after being convicted of second-degree murder of her then-boyfriend in 2013. “I testified falsely against them by saying that they raped me when they…

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In Prison, a Sex Conviction Is a Target for Assault. Staff Pretends Otherwise.

Source: filtermag.org 12/11/24 Coming into the Tennessee men’s prison system nearly 30 years ago, I assumed that my murder conviction would make me the most hated of my incarcerated peers. I imagined a life of solitude, persecution and ridicule. I did not yet know that prison has a social hierarchy in which one type of conviction is always at the bottom, but it isn’t murder. In the early years of my sentence, incoming prisoners with sex-related convictions would be taken straight to protective custody (PC), i.e. solitary confinement. These days,…

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Sign the Petition: Public Sex Offender Registration is Violation of Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Source: Florida Action Committee (FAC) To: The High Commissioner for Human Rights, Office of the United Nations, Complaint Procedure Unit, CH-1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland  Petition to Declare Public Sex Offender Registration in the United States a Violation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) The Florida Action Committee, Inc. (FAC) is a 2,500+ member non-profit public safety organization that advocates for the rights of all persons. Included in our membership are people forced to register as sexual offenders in the United States. Today, approximately one-million people in the United States are forced to…

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WI: Glendale likely to challenge plan that would house sex offenders near child areas

Source: jsonline.com 12/7/24   The City of Glendale, Wisconsin is challenging a plan that would house two sex offenders in Milwaukee, right near Glendale’s border and near several places children often visit. At the city’s Dec. 9 Common Council meeting, officials will vote on whether to approve a resolution that would seek the plan’s reversal. The two offenders were both convicted in 1989, one for first-degree sexual assault and the other for second-degree sexual assault. The proposed resolution invokes a Glendale ordinance prohibiting convicted sex offenders from living within 1,200 feet of specified places…

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Child Pornography And Criminal Justice Reform

Source: Dawinder S. Sidhu & Kelsey Robinson Drug offenses lie at the heart of the movement for criminal justice reform, and for good reason. Drug policy is defined by severe and disproportionate penalties owing to a retributive, factually flawed, and hurried congressional process. These central characteristics apply to the child pornography context as well. Though drug sentencing is problematic enough, child pornography sentencing is arguably worse. The U.S. Sentencing Commission has disavowed the child pornography sentencing guidelines and invited judges to vary from them. Judges have done just that, varying…

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Senators call for audit of TSA’s facial recognition tech as use expands in airports | The Record from Recorded Future News

Source: therecord.media 11/22/24 A bipartisan group of 12 senators on Wednesday sent the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) inspector general a letter expressing alarm over the widespread use of facial recognition technology at American airports without an audit of privacy protections or any third-party assessment of the technology’s accuracy. The Transportation Security Administration (TSA), which is housed within DHS, will soon roll the technology out in small and mid-size airports, taking the total number of airports where it is deployed to 430 nationwide, the letter to Inspector General Joseph Cuffari said. The…

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SORNA Case Advances in Federal Court; PLF Files Motion for Summary Judgment

The Pacific Legal Foundation (PLF) filed a motion for summary judgment on November 18 in its pending case that challenges current federal SORNA regulations.  The U.S. Department of Justice is required to file its opposing brief to this motion no later than December 23.  The PLF will have a final opportunity to support its motion in a response due no later than January 24, 2025.  A hearing on the motion is scheduled to be held on March 10, 2025. In its motion, the PLF argued that the SORNA regulations are…

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TX: Texas Cops Fired for ‘Inappropriate’ Sexual Contact With Massage Workers

Source: reason.com 11/13/24 [ACSOL note: This is posted to show a case of abuse of authority] As a result of the internal affairs investigation, three Lewisville officers were fired, one was demoted, and seven were suspended without pay. Eleven Texas police officers have been disciplined for misconduct related to prostitution stings at massage parlors. Some of the officers are accused of inappropriate physical conduct with alleged sex workers during the stings, while others are accused of failing to stop or report this misconduct. Thirteen officers were investigated, and three wound…

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LA: Louisiana Supreme Court reverses course; child sex abuse ‘lookback’ window ruled constitutional

Source: kadn.com 6/21/24 NEW ORLEANS (KADN) — On review, the Louisiana Supreme Court has determined a 2021 law that created a three-year “lookback” window for child sex abuse victims is in fact constitutional. The law gives victims of child sex abuse a limited timeframe to file civil lawsuits, regardless of when the alleged abuse occurred. Read the full article  

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US appeals court rejects sentencing panel’s compassionate release policy

Source: reuters.com 11/1/24 Nov 1 (Reuters) – A federal appeals court on Friday ruled that the U.S. Sentencing Commission lacked authority to enact a policy last year that would allow judges to deem changes in law as “extraordinary and compelling” reasons justifying releasing prisoners early. A three-judge panel of the Philadelphia-based 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reached that conclusion as it rejected, opens new tab a Pennsylvania man’s bid to reduce the nearly 42-1/2 year prison sentence he received for committing two armed robberies in 2003.   The defendant, Daniel Rutherford, had argued…

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NY: D.A. Whines That He Can’t Use Abusive “Sexually Violent Offender” Term

Source: Jason Schmidt on observertoday.com 11/2/24 [Jason Schmidt is Chautauqua County district attorney] I write to clarify and correct the public record created by recent reporting and editorial comment on my efforts to obtain “Sexually Violent Offender” designations for certain convicted sex offenders under New York’s Sex Offender Registration Act (“SORA”). … One critical designation under SORA is that of “Sexually Violent Offender,” a classification which recognizes the inherent violent nature of certain sex crimes, many of which concern sexual assaults committed against children, by requiring lifetime registration, increased monitoring by law enforcement, and…

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Read the new 2024 Federal Sentencing Guidelines Manual amendments that are effective Nov 1, 2024

Source: ussc.gov 11/1/24 The U.S. Sentencing Commission, a bipartisan, independent agency located in the judicial branch of government, was created by Congress in 1984 to reduce sentencing disparities and promote transparency and proportionality in sentencing. The Commission collects, analyzes, and distributes a broad array of information on federal sentencing practices.  The Commission also continuously establishes and amends sentencing guidelines for the judicial branch and assists the other branches in developing effective and efficient crime policy. Read the guidelines  

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Every Halloween, Cops Brag About Arresting Sex Offenders. Here’s What The Arrests Were Actually For.

Source: huffpost.com 10/31/24 HuffPost obtained 37 arrest reports, the overwhelming majority of which show law enforcement officers arresting people for minor technical parole violations.   Every year on Halloween, law enforcement agencies throughout the country conduct thousands of random checks on people who are required to register as sex offenders. The sweeps, called “Operation Boo,” typically result in a handful of arrests, which cops tout as evidence of their utility in protecting children from would-be predators. The press has dutifully spread this message: “For the 26th year, ‘Operation Boo’ Keeps…

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FL: ‘Let Parents Decide’ What Kids Can Do Online, Argue Tech Groups in New Lawsuit

Source: reason.com 10/30/24 The groups are challenging a Florida law that bans some teens from social media. The Computer and Communications Industry Association (CCIA) and NetChoice, two prominent tech-industry trade groups, have filed a lawsuit against a Florida statute barring younger teens from social media. Their suit—filed Monday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida—cites First Amendment concerns with Florida House Bill 3, which the groups also portray as an imposition on parents’ rights. “Florida House Bill 3 is the latest attempt in a long line of…

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MO: Janice interviewed on TV news about Missouri sex offenders no longer having to put signs out on Halloween

Source: ksdk.com 10/29/24 ST. LOUIS — This Halloween, Missouri sex offenders won’t have to put a sign on their front door turning people away after a court decision earlier this month. Since August of 2008, registered sex offenders had to put signs on their doors on Halloween saying “No candy or treats at this residence.” Attorney Janice Bellucci represented a Hazelwood man challenging the law.   “All the laws have one thing in common, which is they’re based on a myth or misunderstanding that people on the registry actually pose…

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IL: How do scores of Chicagoans arrested for sex crimes stay off the sex offender registry once convicted?

Source: nbcchicago.com 10/22/24 When John heard the news on a recent Friday, it hit him hard: Elliott ____, a former Chicago public schoolteacher and John’s former colleague, had been arrested and charged with three counts of child exploitation, after allegedly exposing himself to three girls – ages 10, 9, and 7. Eight years ago, John – who does not want to be identified by his real name – was one of more than two dozen victims recorded by Elliott after he hid a motion-activated camera in an employee bathroom at…

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