Source: dailymail.co.uk 1/10/24 Florida’s database with names and mugshots of people convicted of paying for sex suddenly disappeared on January 1, 2024. The Soliciting for Prostitution Public Database was launched at the start of 2021, and racked up a list of hundreds of offenders, according to ABC. The Database mysteriously vanished on January 1, 2024, along with a message saying that ‘the section requiring the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to create and maintain the Solicitation for Prostitution Public Database stands repealed.’ Read the full article
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WI Action Alert: Fight SB874 that would put many people back on lifetime GPS registration
Source: docs.legis.wisconsin.gov Call to action for Wisconsin registrants… Last year the high court in Wisconsin struck down former AG’s interpretation that multiple counts on the same case constituted multiple convictions for the purpose of registration and GPS monitoring. A bill was introduced last week that if passed would codify the former AG’s interpretation and put many people back on lifetime GPS registration. The bill is retroactive and seems like it will actually put more people on GPS monitoring than even before. The original statue would have required lifetime GPS monitoring…
Read MoreNM: Bill could change punishment for New Mexico probation violations
Source: krqe.com 1/6/24 NEW MEXICO (KRQE) – The New Mexico legislative session is starting soon, and several bills have been filed this week. One bill, backed by Senators Antonio Maestas and Bill O’Neil, aims to change the way probation violations are handled. … “Right now, under state law, you have two choices: Slap them on the wrist or remand them in custody, waiting for a judge to deem out final sentencing,” said Maestas. … Senator Maestas said other technical violations could have an explanation that was out of the parolees’ control, like…
Read MoreFederal Judge Questions ‘Evolving Standards’ Test for Cruel and Unusual Punishment
Source: reason.com Feb 2024 Issue A federal circuit judge wants the Supreme Court to scrap a longstanding test for determining what is cruel and unusual punishment. In an October speech to the Federalist Society, Reuters reported, Judge Thomas Hardiman, appointed by President George W. Bush to the Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit, advocated a “return to the text and original meaning of the Eighth Amendment” and an end to the “evolving standards of decency” test created by the Supreme Court in the 1950s. In 1958, the Supreme Court…
Read MoreCO: Federal judge dismisses challenge to ‘frustrating’ delays in sex offender treatment behind bars
Source: coloradopolitics.com 1/1/24 Multiple federal judges have looked skeptically in recent months at Colorado’s inability to provide people who are eligible for parole with required sex offender treatment A federal judge recently dismissed an incarcerated man’s challenge to his lack of sex offender treatment in the Colorado Department of Corrections, despite having no idea when he will have access to that mandatory component of his criminal sentence. U.S. District Court Senior Judge William J. Martínez determined David A. Wismer III did not sufficiently allege Colorado committed a constitutional violation by repeatedly de-prioritizing…
Read MoreMO: Missouri has a sex offender registry. Could it have a murderer registry next? [Audio]
Source: missourinet.com 12/29/23 Missouri has a sex offender registry. Alisa Nelson talks to Representative Lane Roberts, of Joplin, who wants to expand the registry to include convicted murderers. Listen to the audio (may not work on all browsers)
Read More‘Keep our honor clean,’ Sexual assault will now be tried outside military chain of command
Source: kktv.com 12/28/23 ASHINGTON (KKTV) – Starting Thursday, The U.S. Military has a new “Offices of Special Trial Counsel” (OSTC) to prosecute sexual assault and other serious crimes. The counsel will have general or flag officer leaders who report directly to the secretaries of the military departments. The authority was previously held by commanders. “This military justice reform is an important step in restoring faith that the system is fair, just and equitable, said senior Defense Department and military officials, who emphasized that the offices will be staffed by specially…
Read MoreLA: Louisiana woman challenges Sorna using ADA angle
Source: courthousenews.com 12/21/23 NEW ORLEANS — A federal court in Louisiana denied the state police’s request to stay a convicted sex offender’s lawsuit alleging that Louisiana’s onerous sex offender notification requirements have resulted in an unfair cycle of arrest, imprisonment and release for noncompliance in violation of her due process rights. The state authorities did not offer any argument on the four factors required to obtain a stay pending appeal, including where the public interest lies in the litigation. Read the full article and download the decision
Read MoreIN: Anderson arsonist told police he targeted child molesters’ homes, court docs reveal
Source: fox59.com 12/21/23 ANDERSON, Ind. — Court documents reveal that an Anderson man didn’t understand why he was being arrested for arson after setting fire to porches, sheds and even an RV. The man reportedly admitted to setting the fires but told police he’d been targeting the homes of child molesters who were “out on the street.” Adam Kinnard, 33, was arrested on Tuesday morning after an RV was found engulfed in flames behind a home on Fletcher Street. Police said Kinnard was spotted by officers — who had been…
Read MoreMS: 10-Year-Old Kid Offered Probation for Peeing Behind His Mom’s Car
Source: reason.com 12/20/23 His mom is rejecting the prosecutors’ absurdly strict probation rules. A Mississippi 10-year-old has been sentenced to three months’ probation for urinating behind his mother’s car. But the boy’s mother is refusing to sign his probation agreement, citing the stringency of the agreement’s terms. “It’s just a regular probation. I thought it was something informed for a juvenile. But it’s the same terms an adult criminal would have,” Carlos Moore, the family’s attorney, told the Associated Press on Tuesday. “We cannot in good conscience accept a probation…
Read MoreTX: Repeat offender in Burnet county gets 99 years for not registering as a sex offender
Source: cbsaustin.com 12/20/23 Earlier this month, a Burnet County jury found 63-year-old Aubrey ____ guilty after he failed to register as a sex offender. Due to prior felony convictions, he was sentenced to 99 years in prison. On Feb. 13, officers responded to ____ ’s residence in Burnet to investigate an allegation. During the investigation, they arrested him. Rather than reporting to his sex offender registration officer, ____ fled to St. Louis, Missouri. He was using an alias and did not inform authorities of his status as a sex offender.…
Read MoreNY: Convicted sex offender suing SLC, state over registry
Source: wwnytv.com 12/19/23 CANTON, New York (WWNY) – New York state’s sex offender registry is being challenged in court by a former Boy Scout leader. Because that man was convicted in St. Lawrence County, the county finds itself a defendant in a case that could have serious ramifications. Former Boy Scout assistant scoutmaster Michael Kelsey is suing New York state and St. Lawrence County, saying the state’s sex offender registry violates his rights. “He’s challenging the constitutionality of the Sex Offenders Registry Act itself, indicating that the act as constructed…
Read MoreSD: South Dakota Attorney General wants lawmakers to address Xylazine, AI-child porn, sex offender registry
Source: thedakotascout.com 12/18/23 South Dakota’s top prosecutor will push lawmakers to regulate a livestock tranquilizer being abused by drug dealers, make it a felony to create child pornography using Artificial Intelligence, and to clear up a conflict in the state’s sex offender laws. Attorney General Marty Jackley Monday released his top five legislative priorities ahead of South Dakota’s 99th Legislative Session, while announcing he will seek legislative changes that address not only xylazine, AI-generated child porn and sex offender laws, but also membership requirements on the South Dakota Open Meetings…
Read MoreMS: Attorney To File Federal Lawsuit Over Black Child Arrested For Urinating In Mississippi
Source: huffpost.com 12/14/23 An attorney in Mississippi is preparing to file a federal lawsuit after a 10-year-old Black child was arrested and sentenced to a three-month probation for urinating in public. Police in Senatobia, Mississippi, arrested a third grader who urinated outside his mother’s car in August. The child’s mother, Latonya Eason, was in a meeting in a nearby building when an officer came inside and told her that he’d seen her son relieving himself. Eason told HuffPost she then went outside to ask her son why he’d done that,…
Read MoreUT: Audit confirms hundreds of convicted sex offenders missing from Utah’s registr
Source: ksl.com 12/16/23 SALT LAKE CITY — An internal audit of Utah’s Sex Offender Registry confirmed what a recent KSL investigation uncovered: More than 100 convicted sex offenders were missing from the registry. For over a year, the KSL Investigators reviewed Utah’s registry, cross-referencing it with public records from Utah’s parole board, online court records, inmate databases, and information gathered by knocking on doors in several neighborhoods. While people with criminal convictions that require them to be on the registry do sometimes attempt to skirt the law, the KSL Investigators…
Read More“I’m Not Unemployed, I’m Unemployable”: Challenges Finding and Sustaining Work for People Required to Register as Sex Offenders
Source: qualitativecriminology.com April 2023 Many individuals convicted of a sexual offense (ICSOs) experience various collateral consequences due to registration requirements, including income loss, unemployment, harassment, social isolation, homelessness, and more. Finding employment post-conviction is a difficult endeavor for many reentering citizens with criminal records, but for ICSOs, the difficulty increases due to their label as sex offenders. When these individuals are unsuccessful in obtaining steady, living-wage employment, it can result in mental health impacts such as depression, hopelessness, and other reactions. This paper seeks to analyze participants’ emotional and mental…
Read MoreFL: Florida prosecutor announces first death penalty case under new child rape law
Source: tallahassee.com 12/15/23 During a May 1 bill signing event, DeSantis said the measure is “for the protection of children.” In a first for Florida, a Central Florida prosecutor is seeking the death penalty for a man charged with raping a child. The pursuit of capital punishment comes after lawmakers passed and Gov. Ron DeSantis signed into law a measure allowing the death penalty for those convicted of sexually battering children under the age of 12. Fifth Judicial Circuit State Attorney Bill Gladson this week announced that a Lake County grand jury had indicted Joseph…
Read MoreU.S. Sentencing Commission Seeks Comment On Proposals Addressing The Impact Of Acquitted Conduct, Youthful Convictions, And Other Issues
WASHINGTON, D.C. ― Today the U.S. Sentencing Commission voted to seek comment on several proposals that would, among other things, limit the federal courts’ consideration of acquitted conduct and youthful convictions under the federal sentencing guidelines. The bipartisan Commission voted today to publish for public comment several options to address the use of acquitted conduct for sentencing purposes. The proposed amendment comes after the Commission took up the issue during last year’s abbreviated amendment cycle but determined that more time and public comment was needed before promulgating amendments. The U.S. Supreme Court…
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