Category: National

CONCORD – Supporters of the rights of criminal offenders turned out at legislative hearings on procedural matters Tuesday to complain about the way they are treated after serving their time. The House Criminal Justice Committee heard testimony on bills to study the state’s use of the sex offender registry and to add another means of notifying victims that an offender is up for parole. Offenders complained that the sex offender registry overstates offenses in some instances, while parole advocates said that hearings sometimes amount to a new trial on the…

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Montville — The town avoided a potential civil rights lawsuit when it rescinded two ordinances Monday that placed restrictions on where registered sex offenders would be allowed in town. The Town Council voted to repeal the ordinances that created so-called child and senior safety zones. Marked by signs, these zones were designed to keep registered sex offenders from town-owned and town-leased property such as the senior center, senior buses, parks, playgrounds, beaches and sports fields. Since the ordinance was introduced, Councilors Rosetta Jones and Dana McFee have voiced their concerns…

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_____ _____ is a fugitive and accused pedophile, and to some, he’s also a poster child for a European judicial system that often would rather let criminals roam their streets freely than see them subjected to American justice. Nearly 20 years ago, _____, who is now 43, fled to Ireland after being charged with raping a 14-year-old girl and molesting two boys in Minnesota. _____, who had dual citizenship, was accused of assaulting two girls in Ireland in 1997, but fled to London, where police finally caught up with him…

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New Mexico lawmakers are now mulling a ban against registered sex offenders on Facebook and other social networking sites, while states, like Texas, are considering forcing them to identify their crimes in their profiles.  The Texas bill would reportedly force certain sex offenders to embed in their profile the type of their offence, the location where it occurred, their full name, date of birth, sex, race, height, weight, and eye and hair color. Full Article

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SOUTH SALT LAKE — Using words such as “bullies,” “extortionists” and “trash,” Salt Lake County Sheriff Jim Winder on Thursday blasted tabloid magazines and websites that post mug shots from his jail and then demand money for the pictures to be removed. “In my opinion, what we’re seeing today is nothing short of extortion in our county,” Winder said. “This practice must be stopped.” Because of the recent booming practice of some private companies publishing all mug shots in a single publication, Winder announced that as of Thursday, mug shots…

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Former New York City mayoral candidate and author Mark Green advocated for new legislation that would allow people to identify and locate gun owners who lived in their neighborhoods. He compared it to the already existing “Megan’s Law,” which lets citizens know if a convicted sex offender lives near them. Then he flat-out compared sex offenders to gun owners. “If we have a Megan’s Law — because I think almost everyone might agree — that if you’re a convicted child molester, a neighbor might want to know that because they’re…

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A federal judge has ordered Nebraska to pay more than $292,000 in attorneys’ fees in a lawsuit that challenged the constitutionality of changes to the state’s sex offender registry laws. But it was a fraction of the amount sought by the attorneys who represented the sex offenders who sued. The laws, the most recent changes to the state’s Sex Offender Registration Act, were passed in 2009 but put on hold as a result of the lawsuit before they were to go into effect in 2010. Full Article

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SternisheFan writes with a story at PC Mag that New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman has announced that more than 2000 registered sex offenders have been kicked off various online gaming platforms, in an cooperative effort involving both the state and various gaming companies. Full Article

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Arizona is not unique in its struggles to monitor and house sex offenders. No state does it well, experts say. An eight-month review by The Arizona Republic found troubling gaps in Arizona’s system of registering and monitoring sex offenders, with overlapping laws and restrictions contributing to homelessness among high-risk offenders. In central Phoenix and Tucson, many homeless sex offenders who are required to provide an address to authorities register to street corners because they have nowhere else to go. That leaves many homeless offenders largely unmonitored despite authorities’ efforts to…

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According to a report released last week by the U.S. Department of Justice, the federal tier-based sex offender registration and management system put in place in 2006 does not predict risk of recidivism by sex offenders and its authors point to the need for a system based on more empirical data. Title 1 of the Adam Walsh Act (called SORNA – Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act), passed by Congress in 2006, sought to improve and standardize sex offender registration and management procedures by requiring all states to implement the…

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BOSTON – A civil rights suit launched by a local couple against the Town of Ayer and it’s police chief began Tuesday in U.S. District Court. Level 3 sex offender ____ ____, 39, and his wife ____ ____ , 23, seek to overturn as unconstitutional a new Ayer by-law that restricts where Level 2 and 3 sex offenders may live and loiter, and to stop the Ayer police from enforcing the bylaw against ____ ____ . Full Article

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A bill designed to protect children from sexual predators has cleared Congress and is headed to the White House to be signed into law. “With President Obama’s signature, this law will help to rescue the thousands of children suffering from unthinkable abuse,” said Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a Democrat from Weston, who sponsored the bill along with House Judiciary Chairman Lamar Smith, a Texas Republican. The bill’s passage is one sign that Congress can still get something done, especially when leaders from each party push a non-controversial measure. The bill…

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City councilors tell petitioning residents any new restrictions must come from the Legislature. City councilors in Gardiner, Maine, say they are not interested in moving forward with new restrictions on where some sex offenders can live, despite some residents’ pleas it would make their neighborhood safer. Residents making a case for an ordinance at a meeting Wednesday were told hat the state Legislature is responsible for sex offender residency restrictions, not the city.

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Does publicly posting names of convicted sex offenders actually reduce the number of sexual offenses? Freelance writer Steve Yoder has written a very informative article about the history of the Nation’s sex offender laws, and outlines many of the consequences (and failures) of these severe laws. He makes the point that despite the fact that legislators “are increasingly adopting a ‘smart on crime’ approach grounded in research on what works, the legal treatment of sexual offenders is moving in the opposite direction.” Increasingly, more people are being added to the…

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End Registration of Juveniles, Residency Restrictions and Online Registries One of the world’s leading independent organizations dedicated to defending and protecting human rights, Human Rights Watch,  believes, as many of us do, that “Laws aimed at people convicted of sex offenses may not protect children from sex crimes but do lead to harassment, ostracism and even violence against former offenders.” Read more here: http://www.hrw.org/news/2007/09/11/us-sex-offender-laws-may-do-more-harm-good

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America has pioneered the harsh punishment of sex offenders. Does it work? The Economist magazine, in this online article describes many of the disturbing issues regarding the sex offender registries, including the fact that teenagers are, in increasing numbers, being made to register—many for a lifetime.

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New sex offender tracking technology. The development of three new initiatives in Ohio will intensify the State’s ability to monitor the more than 19,000 convicted sex offenders living in the state.

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Recently, the US Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit ruled that a policy banning registered sex offenders from entering Albuquerque’s public libraries is unconstitutional. Over the past decade the availability of online sex offender registries has enabled widespread awareness of sexual offenders living in the community, increasing concerns for the safety of children and leading politicians to pass laws restricting where sex offenders can live, work and even be present. Residence restrictions in 30 states and countless municipalities typically prohibit individuals convicted of sex crimes from residing within 500…

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