Category: National

MA: Mass. Forced To Remove Names From Sex Offender Database

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BOSTON (CBS) – They are the faces of predators, with lists of their charges on public view in most police stations, and anyone can use the state’s registry to search for sex offenders in their community. But many of those names are now being removed from the internet database due to a Supreme Judicial Court decision that will grant many of these offenders new hearings about their classification. Full Article

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TX: Appeals court overturns seven convictions for online ‘dirty talk’ to minors

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AUSTIN — The state’s top criminal court on Wednesday reversed the convictions of seven men who were sentenced to prison for talking dirty to minors online. Five men from Harris County, one from Collin County and another from Montgomery County are among the first to see their convictions reversed after a 2013 Texas Court of Criminal Appeals decision overturned a 2005 law criminalizing sexually explicit online communication with minors. Full Article

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MA: Sex offenders set to be delisted by court ruling

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More than 500 sex offenders are expected to be removed from the state’s public online registry after a controversial high court ruling that has caused a massive backlog of cases, according to officials. … The Herald reported yesterday that a Supreme Judicial Court decision rendered last month has forced the SORB to temporarily remove sex offenders from the online database that allows the public to track them. The hearings to determine the risk that offenders pose have also come to a halt. Full Article Related http://www.myfoxboston.com/news/mass-court-decision-removes-sex-offender-info-from-public/13701168 http://www.lowellsun.com/todaysheadlines/ci_29359122/sex-offender-ruling-blasted-by-advocates http://www.bostonherald.com/opinion/editorials/2016/01/editorial_sex_offender_snafu

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TX: Kids or Criminals? series – Locked up at 11, sex offender earns parole at age 32

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Khristopher Hood has something he hasn’t had in decades. Hope. Hood was just 11 when he cried alone in his cell, locked up for molesting two younger female relatives. Now 32 and behind bars ever since, he just earned parole. The state will release him next year after he has nine months of intensive therapy. Sentenced to 40 years in 1995, Hood spent his childhood in state juvenile lockup and then, after he turned 17, in adult prison. Full Article

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TX: Under lawsuit threat, small cities loosen laws restricting sex offenders

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The cities of Pottsboro, Gunter and Whitewright all repealed existing laws restricting sex offenders from schools and public parks at recent city council meetings. This decision came on the heels of a legal notice the cities received from the Texas Voices for Reason and Justice. The advocacy group’s attorney sent this notice threatening to file a legal claim against these three unless their sex offender regulations were repealed. Full Article

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NC: Federal Judge Enjoins Enforcement of Sex Offender Premises Restriction

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Federal Judge Enjoins Enforcement of Sex Offender Premises Restriction Posted on Dec. 17, 2015, 12:51 pm by Jamie Markham • 3 comments     A federal judge has permanently enjoined all North Carolina district attorneys from enforcing G.S. 14-208.18(a)(3), the law intended to prohibit certain sex offenders from being at places where minors gather for regularly scheduled educational, recreational, or social programs. Full Article

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TX: Why Texas’ civil commitment program was found unconstitutional

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Recently the Honorable P.K Reiter made headlines by finding Chapter 841 of the Texas Health and Safety Code unconstitutional. On Monday, December 14, Judge Reiter agreed with Defense Counsel Bill Marshall’s conclusion that the involuntary commitment of Alonzo May under the recently amended law was punitive and a denial of the man’s due process rights under both Texas and U.S. Full Article

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