MILWAUKEE – The Milwaukee Common Council’s Steering and Rules Committee on Thursday tabled a proposal to prevent sex offenders from living within a third of a mile from schools, parks and day cares. That may sound very thoughtful with regards to protecting children. But, speakers at the hearing Thursday offered another viewpoint. It’s pretty easy to go online and see if you’re living near a sex offender. But, police fear that could change. Convicted rapists could start to lie, set up a p.o. box someplace else, but truly be living in a home near…
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My Voice: Treatment, not prison, answer for sex offenses
On behalf of our 4,000-plus members, the Dakota Reform Sex Offender Laws Family Solutions is asking South Dakota Senate candidates to make this issue a campaign priority. Our mission — promote medical research, legislation and education to provide an empirically based, rational approach to dealing with sexually related offenses and stop the cycle of abuse to protect all children. Full Opinion Piece
Read MoreAL: Man Fatally Shoots Sex Offender Who Molested His Daughter In 2001
An Alabama father took justice into his own hands when he shot and killed a man who molested his seven-year-old daughter in 2001. Full Article
Read MoreMA: SJC Ends Lifetime Parole for Sex Offenders
The Supreme Judicial Court today ruled that lifetime parole for sex offenders violates the state’s constitution, The Boston Globe reports. In a 6-1 decision where Justice Robert Cordy was the dissenter on some issues, the state’s highest court said judges alone have the power to sentence people. The state law that created “community parole supervision for life” for sex offenders unconstitutionally gives the Parole Board that same power. Full Article
Read MoreWhy single out sex offenders? Drug dealers, drunken drivers live among us
Letter to the Editor – This is in response to the uproar of a registered sex offender living in Allouez: I would rather know if a convicted drug dealer, wife beater or, for that matter, a person convicted of having DUIs lived next to me. They are not monitored such as a registered sex offender and therefore are not under as much scrutiny as the mentioned offender. Full Letter
Read MoreNJ: Christie signs Jessica Lunsford Act into law
TRENTON – Sex offenders will now face tougher prison sentences thanks to a bill signed into law by Gov. Chris Christie Monday. The Jessica Lunsford Act, named after a 13-year-old who was raped and murdered in 2005, means anyone who is convicted of abusing a child younger than 13 will go to prison for 25 years without parole. Full Article
Read MoreSC: Jindal attacks Sheheen for defending sex offender
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal criticized Gov. Nikki Haley’s opponent on Friday during a South Carolina appearance, taking issue with him for serving as defense attorney for a sex offender. Jindal said South Carolina voters have a clear choice for governor this year. The first, he said is his friend, Haley, whom he characterized as the successful governor of a state with the fastest growing economy on the east coast. “On the other side they have a trial attorney who has made money from defending those who were convicted…
Read MorePA: Change in sex offender law leads to appeals
In September 2011, ____ ____, then 26, was arrested for having a relationship with a 15-year-old girl. … Six months later, he agreed to plead no contest to misdemeanor counts of indecent assault and corruption of minors, while the prosecution dropped felony statutory sexual assault. … Nowhere in the agreement or at his March 5, 2012, plea hearing was there ever any mention of having to register as a sex offender under Megan’s Law. … So months later, when Mr. ____ was notified by the Pennsylvania State Police to comply with the new…
Read MoreFL: Loopholes cast doubt on effectiveness of sex offender laws in Volusia cities
PORT ORANGE — Registered sex offender ____ ____ ____ lives 2,112 feet from Spruce Creek Elementary School. He and other offenders who have served their sentences have been the targets in recent months of politicians including the Port Orange City Council who have enacted new regulations in the name of safety. Port Orange expanded its requirement for sex offenders to live further than 2,500 feet from schools, day-care centers and playgrounds, while in March Gov. Rick Scott signed a package of bills tightening penalties and prison sentences for sex offenders and…
Read MoreOH: Police – Sex abuse allegation led to Fostoria fire
FOSTORIA, Ohio (AP) — One of the suspects charged in a house fire that killed two people who were hearing impaired acted out of revenge after accusing the home’s owner of sexually abusing a child, a detective said in court. Three people have been charged in connection with the fire on May 26 that was ruled arson. Full Article
Read MoreNH: House committee passes bill prohibiting restrictions on where sex offenders can live
A House committee easily passed a bill, 18-1, prohibiting restrictions on where sex offenders can live yesterday, noting that judges have twice ruled residency restrictions unconstitutional. Still, lawmakers predicted a tough fight in the Senate, which has rejected similar bills before. Full Article
Read MoreOK: Sex registry law needs overhaul
In 2007, the Oklahoma State Legislature approved a new law that required all sex offenders be classified under a three-tier system that placed offenders in a specific category depending on the nature of the sex crime. However, the Oklahoma Department of Corrections (DOC) went a step further and made the new registration law retroactive to 1998. However, in June 2013, the Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled the retroactive application of the rule was unconstitutional. Full Article
Read MoreIA: New HIV law to remove stigma of registered sex offender
Changes to Iowa’s HIV criminal transmission law won’t change ____ ____’ felony conviction but it does mean he will no longer bear the stigma of registering as a sex offender. ____ has fought his conviction in court and pushed for reform of the state’s HIV criminal transmission law. He still is waiting on a decision about his case by the Iowa Supreme Court. Full Article
Read MoreTN: Man spent 11 years in prison for rape he didn’t commit
NASHVILLE — ____ ____ didn’t rape that 12-year-old girl in March 1999. It’s a truth he bore for 11 years and three months in a Tennessee prison cell. Few believed him until DNA evidence in 2008 proved he didn’t sexually assault a preteen neighbor. Three more years passed before he was released from prison — and even then he still faced being tried on the charges all over again. But April 4, in light of the DNA evidence and a wavering victim, prosecutors in Marshall County finally dropped all charges. Full Article
Read MoreMA: Most sex convicts do not win release
Despite the release of a convicted sex offender who is now accused of raping and beating a woman at knifepoint Sunday, state courts are much more likely than not to keep convicted sex offenders locked up indefinitely after they finish their prison sentences. Between 2010 and 2012, juries and judges sent 57 of the 83 convicts who sought release back to detention, even though their sentences were up, according to statistics kept by the Massachusetts District Attorneys Association. Full Article
Read MoreOH: 9-year-old boy charged with sex crime
CENTERVILLE, Ohio (WDTN) – Crimes are committed by the very young. Sometimes the child doesn’t realize he or she is crossing the line, but if a complaint is filed and an investigation produces evidence, a prosecutor has to begin legal action. They can be small and still be a criminal and end up in a juvenile facility. The case involving the 9-year old boy happened on Fernshire Drive in Centerville recently. He is now charged with gross sexual imposition, accused of pulling down the pants of another child and touching him inappropriately…
Read MoreNJ: Judge allows two friends to testify that teen told them she had sex with teacher
MORRISTOWN — A Superior Court judge ruled today that the prosecution may use testimony by two witnesses who said a then-16-year-old student at a Paterson high school told them she had sexual relations with a teacher from Parsippany. Full Article
Read MorePA: Myerstown man sentenced for failing to register as sex offender
More than two decades after receiving probation for an indecent assault charge in Florida, ____ ____ finds himself serving a prison sentence in Lebanon County today because he failed to register as a sex offender in Pennsylvania. ____, 52, of 411 N. College St., Myerstown, said he did not know of a change in law that occurred in December that requires him to register as a sex offender with Pennsylvania State Police. Full Article
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