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…
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MS: 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…
Read MoreOH: Ohio prosecutors broke rules to win convictions and got away with it
Source: npr.org 12/14/23 Ernie Haynes never imagined that taking care of his three grandsons after his daughter’s drug overdose death would turn him into a felon at the hands of a longtime Ohio prosecutor known to sidestep the rules intended to protect a defendant’s rights in criminal trials. A week after his daughter died in December 2017, the court granted temporary custody of the children to their biological father, a man Haynes said also struggled with drug addiction. When Haynes refused to give up his grandchildren, Wood County authorities arrested…
Read MoreUS DOJ SMART Office SORNA Case Law Study 2023 revisited
Source: Florida Action Committee and US DOJ 12/10/23 The US DOJ updates this publication each July. Previous year’s issues have been written up. Even if covered already, please find a reminder to take a look at this document. Recent case decisions and the anticipation of potential new case activity are good reasons to revisit this publication. The document does a fair job of compiling and organizing case law. It helps seeing cases listed by federal district and state. Relevant topics are also included. Some search functions can be done, but…
Read MoreIL: Sex offenders on probation challenge Illinois policy on contact with children
Source: courthousenews.com 12/7/23 The parolees complain they have to wait months or more before a therapist deems them fit to see their own children — and can’t even speak to them by phone before then. CHICAGO (CN) — Sex offenders on supervised release argued before a Seventh Circuit panel Thursday that Illinois’ policy limiting when they can see their children is unconstitutional and should be overturned. The parolees filed a class action against the Illinois Department of Corrections in 2018 over a policy that forbade sex offenders from contacting their…
Read MoreTN: Tennessee argues to reinstate sex offender registry requirements at Sixth Circuit
Source: courthousenews.com 12/7/23 CINCINNATI (CN) — Reporting requirements for sex offenders convicted before 1995, which can include in-person reporting, administrative fees and movement restrictions, do not violate the ex post facto clause of the U.S. Constitution, the Volunteer State argued Thursday at a federal appeals court. The state sought to overturn the ruling of a federal judge who found the exhaustive regulations punitive in nature when applied to individuals convicted before the registration system was established. A class of convicted sex offenders filed suit in 2021 and claimed the onerous…
Read MoreAL: Warning from father of teen who took his own life after being sextorted online
Source: wbrc.com 10/4/23 BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WBRC) – A grieving dad is hoping the story of his son’s loss and traumatic last few hours can be a warning to us as parents of teens, and prevent another tragedy like the one his family is now enduring. “Coming up on that one-year anniversary, it’s another day, that’s all it is, another day, but that day will be difficult, it will be hard,” says Brian Montgomery, a father whose life changed completely, and with no warning, one year ago. “It was a normal…
Read MoreUK: Behind the Crime: The Silent Suffering of a Sex Offender’s Family
Source: bnn.network 12/4/23 On a day that was meant to usher in a joyous celebration, a mother named Sarah found her world crumbling. Her husband, the father of her children, was arrested in a police raid on charges of involvement in child sexual abuse material. The chilling discovery of hundreds of illegal images, including Category A content, the most egregious forms of child pornography, was made on her husband’s computer. This event, occurring a day before her son’s birthday, left an indelible imprint on Sarah’s life and her family’s future.…
Read MoreIA: Prisoner advocates feel more hopeless after sex offense civil commitment presentation
Source: newtondailynews.com 12/5/23 Families and advocates of incarcerated individuals at Newton Correctional Facility had been waiting months for the Iowa Board of Corrections to provide some semblance of an answer to their questions regarding the state’s civil commitment program. It was finally put on the agenda. Open for all to see. Although the department of corrections and its board members acknowledged their concerns, advocates left the meeting last month feeling hopeless. Despite a presentation about the sex offender civil commitment referral process from its program manager, Ken Pirc, those in…
Read MoreOH: LGBTQ+ advocates worried about vague language in Ohio’s new ‘grooming’ bill
Source: ohiocapitaljournal.com 12/4/23 A new bill in the Ohio House aiming to punish sexual grooming may have vague enough language that it harms LGBTQ+ youth, some advocates worry. Community is essential for many LGBTQ+ teens. Kaleidoscope Youth Center (KYC) aims to provide that by holding educational programming and discussion groups. “They’re looking for those mentorship-type relationships that all of us need,” said Erin Upchurch, KYC executive director. But now, Upchurch fears a new bill in the Ohio House may target her organization. “The whole idea of it being so vague —…
Read MoreTN: U.S. Dept. of Justice says Tennessee HIV law discriminates
Source: wlns.com 12/1/23 LANSING, Mich. (WLNS) — The U.S. Department of Justice has notified the state of Tennessee it has determined the state is violating the Americans with Disabilities Act by enforcing a law targeting sex workers living with HIV. A 1991 Tennessee law considers sex workers who are HIV-positive to be violent sex offenders, punishable by up to 15 years in prison. “Tennessee’s aggravated prostitution law is outdated, has no basis in science, discourages testing and further marginalizes people living with HIV,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the…
Read MoreME: Orrington residents to choose if they want to limit where sex offenders live
Source: bangordailynews.com 12/1/23 Orrington residents will choose if they want to enact an ordinance that prohibits people on the sex offender registry from living within 750 feet of schools and churches About 35 residents, the board of selectmen, Town Manager Chris Backman and town attorney Andrew Hamilton gathered at the Center Drive School on Thursday to discuss which of three ordinances voters should choose if they decide to vote for the restriction of where registered sex offenders can live. A special town referendum is scheduled for Dec. 11. The public…
Read MoreNJ: Governor, in veto, recommends barring sex offenders from mental health diversion programs
Source: newjerseymonitor.com 11/29/23 Gov. Phil Murphy this week conditionally vetoed a bill that would expand an intervention program to divert some nonviolent criminal defendants to mental health programs, with Murphy recommending lawmakers bar people arrested for sex offenses subject to Megan’s Law. Lawmakers narrowly passed the bill in June along party lines, with Republicans warning it would push violent offenders onto the street. Murphy issued a statement on Monday supporting the spirit of the bill, saying: “Mental health issues should not be unnecessarily criminalized.” “This bill ensures that individuals whose criminal behaviors…
Read MoreTN: Class action lawsuit challenges retroactive placement on Tennessee’s sex offender registry
Source: tennessean.com 11/29/23 Eight people on Tennessee’s legally troubled sex offender registry filed a federal class action lawsuit last week asking that thousands of people with decades-old convictions be removed from the registry. The eight plaintiffs, who are using pseudonyms in the lawsuit, all have convictions from before or shortly after 2004, when the state’s current sex offender registry law, the Tennessee Sexual Offender and Violent Sexual Offender Registration, Verification, and Tracking Act, was passed. They are seeking class status for people on Tennessee’s sex offender registry whose convictions predate the law…
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