In 1855, a 19-year-old woman named Celia was executed by hanging in Missouri. Her crime? She had murdered her owner, a man who purchased her when she was just 14 years old and had been forcing her to be his concubine ever since. There was no dispute that she had killed him. She had even confessed. But Celia’s defense attorneys boldly argued that Celia was permitted to use deadly force to protect herself from rape, basing their argument on a Missouri statute intended to protect white women. Elsewhere in the…
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PA: Judge made right ruling on juvenile sex offenders (Editorial)
In the twilight of his career, York County Common Pleas Court Judge John C. Uhler recently cemented his legacy as a legal lion of Pennsylvania with what might amount to a landmark ruling. It was the right ruling — deeply grounded in constitutional principles. Unfortunately for the judge, though, it’s probably not one that will make him popular among the lock-’em-up-and-throw-away-the-key crowd. In fact, the decision will likely be unpopular among the many people who believe sex offenders should receive death sentences — or at least life without parole. Full…
Read MoreJurisdiction Substantially Implements SORNA (Colorado)
WASHINGTON, Nov. 13, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — The Justice Department’s Office of Sex Offender Sentencing, Monitoring, Apprehending, Registering, and Tracking (SMART) today announced that Colorado and five federally recognized Indian tribes are the latest jurisdictions to substantially implement the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA), Title I of the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006. Full Announcement (pdf) A list of the jurisdictions that have substantially implemented SORNA (17 states, three territories, and 57 tribes) can be found at: http://www.smart.gov/newsroom_jurisdictions_sorna.htm
Read MoreHandbook: Sex Offender Registration and Notification in the United States (2013)
US Dept of Justice: The SMART Office is pleased to announce the release of the 2013 version of Sex Offender Registration and Notification in the United States: Current Case Law and Issues. This edition updates the 2012 version with new cases, issues raised, and corrections where prior case law has been overturned or modified. There were a number of developments in case law, federal legislation, and administrative policies regarding sex offender registration and notification during the last year. Below are some highlights of those changes. Readers are encouraged to review…
Read MorePA: Law requiring lifetime registration for juvenile sex offenders is unconstitutional
In a decision that seems destined for the appeals courts, a York County judge has ruled unconstitutional a two-year-old Pennsylvania law that imposes lifetime registration requirements on juvenile sex offenders. Senior Judge John C. Uhler issued his ruling against the juvenile registration provisions of the Sexual Offender Registration and Notification Act while weighing the cases of seven county teens adjudicated as having committed serious sex crimes. Uhler found that the registration mandate “unconstitutionally forecloses a court’s considerations of the many unique attributes of youth and juvenile offenders” under age 18…
Read MoreAR: Sex Offenders, Experts Question Effectiveness of New Restrictions
LITTLE ROCK, AR – After serving their time, some sex offenders can be on another list for the rest of their lives. Convicted sex offenders are required to register with their local law enforcement office for at least 15 years, often much longer than that. Now some registered sex offenders and their families are saying this branding is doing more harm than good. Full Article
Read MoreOR: Sex offenders commute to easy registration sites
… Recently, Fairview Police Chief Ken Johnson reported an unusually high number of sex offenders registering in Fairview. Even more odd, a majority of them don’t live in Fairview, but are arriving from Portland and elsewhere within Multnomah County. Full Article
Read MoreCO: Denver Post article, shows eight amendment violation, for lack of treatment
An article in the Denver Post on November 3, 2013 was titled “Unintended effect of 1998 Colorado law: More sex offenders in for life”. This article brought to light that Colorado has not been offering treatment, as is required by law to people who have been sentenced for crimes. These people can only be released after receiving effective treatment and the state is not offering that treatment supposedly because of facilities and financial issues. Full Article
Read MoreStatic-99 developers embrace redemption – Sex offender risk plummets over time in community, new study reports
And now — drum roll — the authors of the most widely used actuarial tool for assessing sex offender recidivism are conceding that even sex offenders cross a “redemption threshold” over time, such that their risk of committing a new sexual crime may become “indistinguishable from the risk presented by non-sexual offenders.” Tracking a large group of 7,740 sexual offenders drawn from 21 different samples around the world, the researchers found that those who remain free in the community for five years or more after their release are at drastically…
Read MoreTX: Is the public sex offender registry fair?
Kids across Southeast Texas are gearing up for Halloween, and with the holiday season upon us, parents should be aware of who lives in the homes their children are visiting. As part of a special report, 12News has researched which cities in SETX have the most registered sex offenders per capita. According to city-data.com, Woodville has the highest percentage, with one in every 79 residents being a registered sex offender. Next is Kountze, with one in every 86 residents being an offender. Third is Buna, with one sex offender for…
Read MoreWI: Sex offender ordinance is working, Sheboygan officials say
Five years after Sheboygan first enacted strict limits on sex offenders seeking to live here, the city’s sex offender population has slowly waned, with the city now denying about a quarter of all residency requests it receives, records show. The 2008 ordinance essentially barred most registered sex offenders from living here without first receiving a waiver from a city committee and ultimately the Common Council. Since then, the city’s sex offender population has fallen by 13 percent, state records show, with 184 offenders now living at a Sheboygan address — some…
Read MoreTX: Online solicitation statute ruled unconstitutional
In a surprising decision – both for its unanimous outcome and the unlikely reference to Miley Cyrus “twerking” in a Texas judicial opinion – the Court of Criminal Appeals today declared Texas Penal Code §33.021(b), criminalizing online solicitation of a minor, “facially unconstitutional” in a habeas corpus writ styled Ex Parte John Christopher Lo. See their unanimous opinion (pdf) written by Judge Cathy Cochran which ruled that the statute is “overbroad because it prohibits a wide array of constitutionally protected speech and is not narrowly drawn to achieve only the legitimate objective of…
Read MoreCO: Unintended effect of 1998 law: More sex offenders in for life
In Colorado prisons, the number of men and women serving life sentences for sex offenses today is 41 times greater than that of just 14 years ago. On the roster of lifers, sex offenders now outnumber everyone else — killers, kidnappers, armed robbers, arsonists, habitual offenders, adults who fatally abuse children. Sixty-three percent of all Colorado prisoners sentenced to life are sex offenders, a figure that is more than four times the national average. This wasn’t supposed to happen. The sponsor of a 1998 law providing lifetime supervision of sex…
Read MoreAZ: Professor – Halloween sex offender scare is a myth (CBS5 News)
PHOENIX (CBS5) – It’s something you hear about every Halloween – to be on the lookout for convicted sex offenders preying on Valley children. But CBS 5 News has learned that the Halloween sex offender scare may be just a myth. CBS 5 News contacted law enforcement agencies in Phoenix, Mesa, Glendale, Peoria, Scottsdale and Surprise. None of the police departments have reported any problems involving a sex offender and children on Halloween, over the past five years. Full Article
Read MoreOH: Councilman tables own proposed ordinance on sex offenders
AMHERST — A proposed ban which would have prevented registered sex offenders living within the city limits from participating in Halloween will have to wait.At a committee meeting Monday, Phil Van Treuren made a motion to table the ordinance which he promoted one week ago through a news release.Van Treuren said his proposed ordinance was recommended after seeing the Village of Orwell in Ashtabula County adopt a similar ordinance recently, prohibiting sex offenders from answering their door during and around Halloween. After getting feedback from council members and Law Director…
Read MoreFL: Black swan crash lands on Florida SVP program
Dan Montaldi’s words were prophetic. Speaking to Salon magazine last year, the former director of Florida’s civil commitment program for sex offenders called innovative rehabilitation programs “fragile flowers.” The backlash from one bad deed that makes the news can bring an otherwise successful enterprise crashing down. Full Article
Read MoreMI: Legislation would force sex offenders to pay to be on registry [UPDATED]
Legislation passed by the Michigan Senate in Lansing would require registered sex offenders to pay an annual fee to help maintain the state’s sex offender registry. Senate Bill 221’s sponsor, state Sen. Rick Jones, said it is ready for the governor’s signature. “These are people who committed crimes,” said Jones, R-Grand Ledge. “I do not believe that the hardworking taxpayers in Michigan should foot the bill for a registry of crimes they did not commit.” In a news release on Thursday, Jones cited other states such as Indiana, which charges $50 per year…
Read MoreOK: Sex Offender Law Successful Challenge Sets Stage for Other Jurisdictions
Recent decisions have relied on the reasoning of the US Supreme Court in Smith v. Doe when analyzing challenges to sex offender registry laws. The Smith decision notoriously held that Alaska’s sex offender registry did not violate the US Constitution’s prohibition on ex post facto laws. The US Supreme Court held that the Alaska registry was constitutional by applying a two-step analysis: first, determining whether the legislation was intended to have a punitive effect and if so, analyzing the results of the “intents-effects” test established by the court in Kentucky vs. Mendoza-Martinez. The Oklahoma Supreme Court…
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