Source: prisonlegalnews.org 9/15/23 On February 2, 2023, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas dismissed a state prisoner’s habeas corpus petition challenging denial of his parole because he did not have approved sex offender housing. While bad news for him, the decision is instructive for any prisoner facing housing restrictions when paroled or on probation. Charles Isaac Wilson, Jr., is serving a 40-year sentence for a 2010 conviction for delivery of cocaine. In November 2021, the state Parole Board recommended he be transferred from the state Department…
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WV: A convicted sex offender using signs to voice his first amendment right. And the complaint made against him
Source: youtube.com 10/10/23 A heated neighborhood dispute was escalated in the South Hills area of Charleston, West Virginia, after a convicted sex offender used yard signs targeting children to make his point. Watch the video
Read MoreFL: Volusia councilman seeks to strengthen sex offender ordinances
Source: youtube.com 10/16/23 On Tuesday, a Volusia County commissioner is expected to propose new rules to crack down on local sex offenders. District Three Councilman Danny Robins told News 6 that he wants to make the county safer, so he compiled data from law enforcement agencies including the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. Watch the video
Read MoreNY: Opinion: The case for fixing probation and parole
Source: cityandstateny.com 9/22/23 On Sept. 17, 2021, when I was running the notorious Rikers Island jails, Gov. Kathy Hochul signed the Less Is More act into law, reducing parole revocations for non-criminal, technical violations. When she did so, she applied the act retroactively to all people incarcerated for 30 days or more for parole violations like drug use, missed appointments and curfew violations. Unfortunately, Isaabdul Karim had only been incarcerated for 29 days, missing his release opportunity by a single day. Two days later, Mr. Karim died of COVID-19 in…
Read MoreParents, investigators recall long quest for answers after Jacob Wetterling’s 1989 abduction
Source: abcnews.go.com 10/12/23 A new “20/20” examines the chilling case that remained unsolved until 2016. Nearly 34 years ago, the abduction of an 11-year-old boy from a dark road in rural Minnesota terrified the community and went on to become one of the biggest mysteries in the state’s history. Jacob Wetterling was kidnapped at gunpoint a half-mile from his St. Joseph home just after 9 p.m. on Oct. 22, 1989. He was never seen alive again. The chilling case, which remained unsolved until 2016, is the focus of a new…
Read MoreFAC President Speaks to UN Human Rights Committee in Geneva Switzerland
Source: Florida Action Committee 10/16/23 Today, our FAC President Gail Colletta addressed the United Nations Human Rights Committee in Geneva Switzerland to call out the United States’ failure to address the inhumane Registry scheme and specifically the practice of allowing states to create Sex Offender Residency Restrictions (SORRs). Gail had only two-minutes to define the problem and ask the UN to hold the United States accountable for the violation of numerous human rights. While there is more that needs to be done to abolish the Registry entirely, her presence today…
Read MoreNY: They Were Supposed to Be Free. Why Are They Locked Up?
Source: thenation.com 10/14/23 No one wants a person convicted of a sex offense in their neighborhood. So New York keeps them in prison long past their release dates. Jory Smith was supposed to be free. His sentence had been up for five days on August 28, 2020, when officers at Marcy Correctional Facility, a medium-security prison in upstate New York where Smith had spent almost five years, summoned him to a conference room. But instead of releasing him, they said they were taking him to another prison. Confused, Smith asked…
Read MoreCT: New Fairfield proposes ordinance to ban sex offenders from public places frequented by children
Source: newstimes.com 10/16/23 NEW FAIRFIELD — The town is proposing a new ordinance that, if adopted, would ban convicted sex offenders from public places frequented by children. With the goal of preserving and promoting “the health, safety and general welfare of the children” and protecting them from “the threat of sexual abuse from sex offenders,” the proposed ordinance would “enact reasonable regulations restricting sex offenders from entering child safety zones,” according to the text of New Fairfield’s draft sex offender ordinance. The idea for the ordinance came from local law enforcement, First…
Read MoreMO: Motion for TRO Filed to Stop Missouri Halloween Sign Requirement
A motion for Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) was filed today in federal district court asking the court to stop enforcement of a Missouri state law that requires registrants to post a sign on the front door of their home on Halloween. If the motion is granted, enforcement of the Halloween sign requirement could be stopped statewide. “It was important to make this request today so that the court could issue its ruling prior to Halloween,” stated ACSOL Executive Director Janice Bellucci, who is now the lead attorney in the case. …
Read MoreMN: CA suspect in 2003 St. Paul rape is charged after testing of DNA evidence
Source: startribune.com 10/10/23 [ACSOL note: we are posting this to show how an unusually long delay of charges is possible, even reaching to another state] Since 2012, the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office and its law enforcement partners have been chipping away at their backlog of sexual assault kits holding evidence in unsolved cases. By Paul Walsh Star Tribune Testing of DNA evidence nearly 20 years after it was collected has led to a man’s arrest on allegations that he raped a woman in a vehicle. Shawn P. ____, 48, was charged…
Read MoreME: Maine town residents tell leaders they want residency restrictions due to imaginary reoffense rates
Source: wgme.com 10/9/23 An Orrington Select Board meeting last month devolved into an explosive half-hour debate between residents and officials about where sex offenders should be allowed to live within the town. Residents assumed that restrictions on how close registered sex offenders could live to places such as schools and parks were set statewide. But it wasn’t until an offender moved to Orrington this summer that many realized the town does not have those laws in place. … residents were surprised to learn that Maine does not have a state-wide…
Read MoreAction Alert for Illinois: Take action now to reduce and repeal registries, decriminalize housing, and let people live in available homes
Source: Illinois Voices for Reform and Chicago 400 A message from Adele Nicholas, Executive Director, Illinois Voices for Reform: Illinois residents, please click here to support SB2158 now! Everyone needs a place to live. People who’ve done their time should have the opportunity to establish stable homes for themselves and their families. Illinois’ wasteful and counterproductive registry and residency laws too often prevent people on the registry from building a foundation for a positive future. It’s time to stand up for real change. You can help us get there! Our…
Read MoreMO: Hazelwood man’s Halloween displays were lavish. A sex offender law forced him to quit
Source: stltoday.com 10/9/23 ST. LOUIS — Thomas Sanderson’s Halloween festivities were a neighborhood tradition. For more than two decades, the Hazelwood resident put together a “lavish display” featuring animatronic figures and creatures, lights, music, fog machines, a bonfire and — of course — candy. But on Halloween in 2022, a half-dozen police cars descended upon Sanderson’s property and asked to search his home. Sanderson had been convicted of a sex offense in 2006, and police argued he had violated a state law that prohibits people on the sex offender registry…
Read MoreACSOL News Alert: Federal Lawsuit Challenges Missouri Halloween Sign Requirement
A lawsuit was filed in a federal district court this week challenging a state law in Missouri that requires registrants to post a sign on the front door of their home on Halloween. The plaintiff in the case, Thomas J. Sanderson, was arrested last year for violating that and other requirements of the state law at issue. The basis of the legal challenge is the First Amendment that not only allows citizens to speak but also protects citizens from compelled speech which has been defined as a requirement to utter…
Read MoreWA: Portland man arrested in Clark County sting acquitted of child sex abuse in new trial
Source: columbian.com 10/2/23 A Portland man was acquitted last month after being granted a new trial on appeal, nearly five years after he was convicted in connection with an undercover child sex sting. A Clark County Superior Court jury Sept. 8 acquitted Jace Hambrick, 27, of attempted second-degree rape of a child and communicating with a minor for immoral purposes. He was one of several people arrested in February 2017 after responding to an advertisement posted by an interagency task force posing as minors online. In Hambrick’s case, he responded…
Read MoreIN: County to increase fees for out-of-county sex offenders
Source: wkkg.com 10/3/23 Convicted sexual and violent offenders who come in to Bartholomew County to work or for other activities would now pay more to be entered into the county’s sex offender registry under a change being considered by the county commissioners. Under the existing rules those who lived outside Bartholomew County, but travelled here for various activities were only paying $5 annually to be added to the registry, while in-county residents had to pay $50 annually. Read the full article
Read MoreIL: Illinois legislator tells prison agency ‘do your job’ on sex offender notification
Source: thecentersquare.com 10/3/23 A Republican state legislator says she has no interest in the idea of changing the state’s sex offender notification system that was the subject of a recent audit finding with the Illinois Department of Corrections. The compliance audit released last week looks at IDOC for two years ending June 30, 2022. In total, there were 46 findings and 40 repeat findings. The findings include a failure to notify victims and local law enforcement after releasing sex offenders, including those who committed a predatory criminal sexual assault of a child,…
Read MoreFL: County and municipal codes stricter than state’s may not be enforceable
Source: mainstreetdailynews.com 9/26/23 The Newberry City Commission is looking for… … Currently, Newberry’s code does not allow sexual offenders to reside within 1,000 feet, and predators 1,500 feet, of a state-defined “protected place,” defined to be schools, childcare facilities, parks, playgrounds and any other gathering place for children. The city of Williston limits both to live 2,500 feet away from protected places, while state statute limits both sexual offenders and predators to a minimum of 1,000 feet from protected places. Courtesy city of Newberry Newberry’s existing code-specified 1,500-foot perimeters around…
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