Category: National

PAHOKEE — The pianist at First United Methodist Church was as nervous as he’d ever been before a performance. Music comes naturally to ____ ____. So he wasn’t worried what they would think of his playing. He was worried what they thought of him. “Do they know about my past?” Had they seen the newspapers? The ones that showed his face and the words sex offender? Full Article

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This short analysis of the Adam Walsh Child Protection Act of 2006 and its implementation in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania seeks to explore the background, philosophical failures and statistics to justify repeal of the AWA.  Additionally, there are significant policy recommendations that provide real reforms that provide enhanced community safety while not violating Constitutional principles or denying the ability for former offenders to successfully reenter society.  The AWA is a dangerous, destabilizing, retroactively applied law that: … Full Article

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Jeremy Moody, a member of a small but violent racist skinhead gang called Crew 41, shocked South Carolina authorities last week when he told them that he and his wife shot and stabbed to death a middle-aged couple July 21 because the man was a registered sex offender. But if ridding the world of sex offenders was Moody’s goal, he didn’t have to go outside of his crew to find one. The head of the gang’s Colorado chapter, ___ ___., is a registered sex offender, convicted of “accosting for immoral purposes.” Full…

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GREENVILLE, SC (FOX Carolina) – At its heart, law enforcement agencies across the country say that the sex offender registry is a great resource when used. For example, when people are moving into a neighborhood, or perhaps if they have questions about a neighbor. “The sex offender registry is a tool, and it’s a tool for both law enforcement and the general public,” said Lt. Michael Hildebrand with the Greenville County Sheriff’s Office. “And just like every tool, when it is used properly, it’s a good thing.” But Union County deputies…

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Women Against Registry- Recently, this country has gone through months of listening to stories about George Zimmerman and the murder of a slain man and his scorned mistress, Jodi Arias . Where is the news coverage of the brutal stabbing murders of the Parkers? Why aren’t the perpetrators faces who forced their way in to Charles and Gretchen Parker’s home, not all over the air waves of ABC, NBC, MSNBC, HLN and other media networks? Women Against Registry can tell you why.  The why is because the Parker’s murders were not…

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COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A South Carolina man targeted a sex offender at random, killed him and his wife and later told deputies he planned to kill others on the state’s sex registry, authorities said Wednesday. Jeremy Moody and his wife, Christine, were arrested and charged with murder, Union County Sheriff David Taylor said. Jeremy Moody confessed to the crime and told investigators they arrested him just in time, Taylor said. Full Article [Update] Related Article – Article 2

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INDIANAPOLIS — An Indiana law that bans registered sex offenders from using Facebook and other social networking sites that can be accessed by children is unconstitutional, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday. The 7th U.S. Circuit of Appeals in Chicago overturned a federal judge’s decision upholding the law, saying the state was justified in trying to protect children but that the “blanket ban” went too far by restricting free speech. The 2008 law “broadly prohibits substantial protected speech rather than specifically targeting the evil of improper communications to minors,” the…

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OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — A system for categorizing sex offenders that experts describe as flawed is causing local police departments and state prison workers in Oklahoma to spend time and money monitoring thousands of sex offenders who pose little risk to the public. When the federal government imposed requirements on states in 2006 to create a three-tiered system for ranking sex offenders, Oklahoma lawmakers decided to base the tiers strictly on the crime an individual committed. Full Article

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WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas will appeal a state district court judge’s decision that orders a child molester’s name to be removed from its offender registry after finding the registration laws violate the U.S. Constitution, the state’s top prosecutor said Thursday. At issue is Tuesday’s decision in which Shawnee County Judge Larry Hendricks found that Kansas law ostracizes offenders and requires them to remain registered longer than necessary. But, his ruling applied only to the 50-year-old Lenexa man who sued the Kansas Bureau of Investigation and Johnson County sheriff’s office…

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WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas judge has ordered law enforcement agencies to remove a man’s name from the state’s offender registry, saying an amended law ostracizes offenders and requires them to remain registered longer than necessary. Tuesday’s decision by Shawnee County Judge Larry Hendricks addressed only the case of the man who sued to end his registering requirement, but it could extend to others in his situation if the state Supreme Court upholds it upon appeal. High courts in other states have struck down similar registration laws that have been found to be too excessive.…

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STATE HOUSE – The General Assembly has approved legislation that will prohibit prospective employers for including questions on job applications regarding arrests, charges or criminal convictions. The legislation provides exceptions to that rule in certain cases: if a federal or state law or regulation creates a mandatory or presumptive disqualification based on a person’s conviction of one or more specified criminal offenses, or if a fidelity bond is required and an individual’s conviction of one or more specified offenses could prevent obtaining such a bond. All other potential employers would…

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Discounts for the national RSOL conference, including registration and hotel, will end on July 31. In order to take advantage of those discounts, please register for the conference and hotel no later than that date.  After July 31, the conference rate will increase from $90 to $100 and the hotel rate will increase from $89 to $130 per night.  It’s easy to register online at www.nationalrsol.org.   Scholarships for the conference are available to qualified California registrants and family members who volunteer at the conference.  Please contact Janice at (805) 896-7854 or via E-mail…

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Lawmakers rushed to approve the final pieces of a two-year budget and leave Salem after 155 days — five shy of the constitutional deadline to finish their work. One of their final acts was passing an $800 million bonding package to fund construction projects around the state, including a 174-bed psychiatric hospital in Junction City. Some Republican legislators criticized the project because of the high costs associated with staffing and operating the facility after it’s built. The package, however, passed each chamber with a large majority Monday. Full Article

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Defense attorney David McDonald had no problem with his client being required to register every three months with the sheriff’s office as a violent offender. However, the recent sentence that client ___ ____ ____, 33, received — 22 years and eight months tied to two Shawnee County cases for failing to register as an offender — is excessive, McDonald said. No one objects to keeping track of violent offenders, McDonald said, but the sentences “have just gone way too far. It’s gone incredibly too far.” Full Article

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DOVER, Del. – The state House has given final legislative approval to a bill giving Family Court judges the discretion to determine whether certain juvenile offenders should be declared sex offenders subject to inclusion on the state’s sex offender registry. Full Article

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Hundreds of names of convicted sex offenders may be removed from the state’s list of registered sex offenders as the result of an Oklahoma Supreme Court ruling handed down Tuesday. In a split decision, the court ruled state corrections officials have been violating the Oklahoma Constitution by retroactively applying state sex offender registry laws, thereby dramatically increasing the time many convicted sex offenders must spend on the registry. (2 Pages) Full Article Case Info

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