The Sixth Circuit’s recent decision in Does v. Snyder, __ F.3d __, 2016 WL 4473231 (6th Cir. 2016), has significant implications for the representation of current registrants who are charged with violating Michigan’s Sex Offender Registration Act (SORA), current registrants seeking removal from the sex offender registry or exemptions from certain SORA provisions, defendants currently charged with sex offenses, and defendants in “recapture” cases. While every case is obviously unique, this memo seeks to provide some general guidance to Michigan’s criminal defense bar in the wake of the Does decision.…
Read MoreCategory: National
“One strike for sex offenders should be enough” – change.org Petition
“The system failed me and my family and I’m going to do whatever it takes to put an end to the psychos running the streets.” – Shasta Groene For anyone living in the Pacific Northwest in May of 2005, the survival story of Shasta Groene is one you could not turn away from. It has now been almost 11 1/2 years since ____ ____ , a sex offender with a long record of assaults on children, abducted Shasta and her brother Dylan from their Idaho home where another brother, Slade,…
Read MoreSex offenders in nursing homes issue begs for answers
… Others responding to the investigation said it’s a complicated issue in need of more study. “The question is what do we do with these people,” said state Sen. Peggy Lehner, R-Kettering. “You obviously have people who are in need of nursing home care who happen to be sexual predators. And what is the alternative for them?” The investigation explored an idea other states have proposed but none have implemented — creating specialized nursing homes for those on the sex offender registry. Critics said that approach would isolate offenders from…
Read MoreIL: Sex offender internet law constitutional
SPRINGFIELD — The state’s highest court has upheld a law that requires sex offenders to disclose information about their internet identities and websites. In a unanimous decision authored by Justice Charles E. Freeman, the Illinois Supreme Court held that a provision of the Sex Offender Registration Act survived First Amendment scrutiny because it bolsters the government’s interest in protecting the public without restricting more speech than necessary. In an 18-page opinion issued this morning, the court critiqued a handful of federal district courts who have found similar statutes unconstitutional and…
Read MoreOH: Convicted rapist says his care hurt by his offender status
Sex offender who lives in Columbus nursing home talks about difficulties in getting housing. Full Article
Read MoreLA: Too Poor for Freedom: Sex Offender Registry and the Fourteenth Amendment
If a school mandated uniforms and suspended a child too poor to afford them, there would be an uproar. Media would excoriate the school for denying the impoverished an education due to their financial circumstances. Many would wonder at the cost of a uniform relative to the school’s budget, suggesting that the school simply offer the child a simple uniform. As ever, our instinctive notions of justice and fair play seem to end at criminal court. In the state of Louisiana, a person required to register as a sex offender…
Read MoreTX: Marion forced to abandon tough sex offender ordinance over lawsuit threat
The city of Marion was given an ultimatum recently, as Texas Voices For Reason and Justice (TVRJ) and the Law Office of Richard Gladden sent a letter asking the city to repeal a local sex offender ordinance. Full Article
Read MoreIA: Why Prosecuting a Teen Girl for Sexting Is Absurd
A 14-year-old in Iowa is facing sexual exploitation charges for sharing a suggestive photo of herself – and that’s not as rare as you might think. Full Article Related http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2016/10/05/iowa_prosecutor_might_charge_a_teen_with_sex_crimes_for_taking_a_selfie.html?wpsrc=sh_all_dt_fb_top
Read MoreMaking the Case Against Banishing Sex Offenders
Mary Sue Molnar estimates that she gets at least five calls a week from Texans on the sex offender registry who can’t find a place to live. Numerous towns around the state have passed ordinances prohibiting those on the list from residing within a certain distance — anywhere from 500 to 3,500 feet — of a school, park, daycare facility or playground. In some towns, that’s almost everywhere. “We’ve got people living in extended-stay motels,” says Molnar, who runs the sex-offender-rights group Texas Voices for Reason and Justice. “We’re in…
Read MoreMN: Well-meaning family takes in sex offender, inciting fear and outrage
The debate in Birchwood Village shows a problem that state leaders still have not figured out how to address: How to integrate sex offenders into a community. Full Article
Read MoreOH: Local Democrat slams GOP challenger for claiming he’s a ‘pedophile’
David Sparks, the Clayton Democrat running against State Rep. Jeff Rezabek, R-Clayton, says the Ohio Republican Party is putting him in personal danger with a new mailed campaign ad that Sparks says implies he is a pedophile. “I’m really upset that I’m being painted as a pedophile. It’s over the top. I’m afraid for my safety now,” said Sparks. “You know what society does to people they think are into kids. Full Article
Read MorePA: A deal is a deal – Supreme Court blocks retroactive registration boosts for sex offenders
Sex offender registration requirements can’t be increased for people who reached deals to plead guilty to sex crimes before Pennsylvania’s latest registration law took effect, the state Supreme Court has decided. The high court reached that conclusion in an opinion Justice Max Baer issued this week on three consolidated cases involving York County sex offenders. Full Article
Read MoreFL: Preliminary Injunction granted (Internet Identifiers)
The Judge’s Order was just filed in our Motion seeking to enjoin the enforcement of the Internet Identifier changes and WE WON!!! Source (FAC)
Read MoreFL: I’m an ex-sex offender. Florida should use fact, not emotion, to write laws
No matter how a person may have corrected his or her actions and paid for failures, in the state of Florida, it’s “once a felon, always a felon.” What is such a policy as this supposed to solve? Full Opinion Piece
Read MoreOR: ‘Incorrigible’ public masturbator shouldn’t be locked up for life, Supreme Court says
The Oregon Supreme Court on Thursday for the first time reversed a life prison sentence for an unstoppable public masturbator — saying Oregon’s three-strikes-you’re-out law for repeat sex offenders isn’t always constitutional. Full Article
Read MoreFL: The Dobbs Wire – A win in the 11th Circuit today!
A win in the 11th Circuit today! Miami-Dade is infamous for encampments of homeless registrants, permanent housing very scarce because of residency restrictions. Despite national media attention to bad laws that had people living under the Julia Tuttle Causeway–courts haven’t been much help. Now there’s an interesting development. A lawsuit in federal court challenging those residency restrictions had been dismissed. However, today a federal appeals court *reversed* that dismissal and sent it back to the original court for further proceedings. Congrats to John Doe #1, John Doe #2, John Doe…
Read MoreID: 104 sex offenders sue Idaho over its registry laws
A lawsuit challenging Idaho’s laws governing registration and community notification of sex offenders seeks a permanent injunction to stop the state and counties from enforcing portions of the law. The lawsuit, filed Thursday in Boise federal court on behalf of 104 unnamed sexual offenders, identified as Does 1-104, argues that Idaho’s sex offender registry laws violate the U.S. and Idaho constitutions. Full Article Lawsuit
Read MoreIA: Sex offenders sue over Iowa’s civil commitment program
Nine men who were convicted of sex crimes, served their prison sentences and are now indefinitely confined to an Iowa mental health unit have filed a federal lawsuit against the state, claiming its civil commitment program is unconstitutional. Full Article
Read More