Category: National

OH: Ohio’s arson registry just turned 10 years old. Is it working?

R H

Source: cantonrep.com 8/17/23 In 2013, Ohio lawmakers passed Section 2909.15 of the Ohio Revised code, creating the statewide arson registry. There are currently 1,377 individuals registered as arson offenders. Fire officials and investigators say the registry is a valuable tool. Other experts argue the database is ineffective and unconstitutional.  Shawndra Brown decided to set a car on fire following a domestic dispute. That was in 2013. As part of her sentence, the 35-year-old Columbus resident was required to register once a year, every year, as an arson offender — her…

Read More

TX: Call to 911 backfires on Pleasant Farms man who tried to murder a registrant

R H

Source: oaoa.com 8/14/23 A Pleasant Farms man who thought deputies were going to come to his house to arrest a man he described as a sex offender was arrested instead. According to an Ector County Sheriff’s Office report, Daniel Renee Sanchez, 37, called 911 Sunday to say he’d detained a sex offender on his property in the 4500 block of West Mulberry Street. When deputies arrived, Sanchez said he’d detained, at gunpoint, a 21-year-old man who had texted inappropriate things to his stepson a week prior, the report stated. Read…

Read More

CO: Lincoln County judge wrongly denied man opportunity to justify possession of contraband, court rules

R H

Source: coloradopolitics.com 8/14/23 Licoln County judge improperly denied an incarcerated man the opportunity to justify his possession of contraband weapons behind bars, Colorado’s second-highest court ruled last week in reversing the conviction. Colorado law provides for a “choice-of-evils” defense. A person can avoid conviction if they show they were facing imminent harm and engaged in criminal conduct as an emergency measure, without another path available to avoid the harm. Edward ___ was incarcerated at Limon Correctional Facility for a sex offense when he disclosed to an employee that he had…

Read More

CT: It’s time to reform the CT sex offense registry

R H

Source: ctmirror.org 8/10/23 This year will mark the 25th anniversary of the public Sex Offender Registry (SOR) in Connecticut. The SOR – also called the sexual offense registry by advocates who want to move past the stigma of dehumanizing labels – is a publicly accessible internet database of individuals who have been convicted of a sexual offense and reside, work, or attend school in Connecticut. It is searchable and includes their name, physical description, addresses, photo, and offense details. Twenty-five years has been more than sufficient for researchers to study…

Read More

TN: Registry to life sentence: TN courts remove dozens from sex offender registry after legal challenges

R H

Source: newschannel5.com 8/9/23 NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — It’s costing taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars as more people file lawsuits claiming they shouldn’t be restricted by a registry that didn’t exist when they were convicted. Dozens of people have since been removed from the registry as a result, with dozens more potentially on the way. Thomas spent more than 20 years on Tennessee’s Sex Offender Registry but now considers himself a free man. His case is still being appealed, so we’ve agreed to stick with first names for his protection.…

Read More

WI: Wisconsin releases sex offenders from GPS bracelets after court ruling

R H

Source: captimes.com 8/8/23 The state Department of Corrections has begun releasing certain sex offenders from lifetime GPS tracking after a Wisconsin Supreme Court decision undermined the agency’s justification for keeping people on electronic monitoring beyond their sentences. The department confirmed to the Cap Times that it is in the process of identifying everyone who was forced to wear the GPS devices for the rest of their lives as the result of a now-debunked interpretation of state statute by former Attorney General Brad Schimel. As of Tuesday, it remained unknown precisely…

Read More

MS: Lifetime voting ban for felony convictions struck down in Mississippi

R H

Source: abcnews.go.com 8/4/23 Mississippi’s lifetime voting ban for people with disqualifying felony convictions has been struck down in a new decision from the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. The court’s 2-1 decision will restore the right to vote for tens of thousands of Mississippians, according to the plaintiff’s council Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP. The court ruled Thursday in the case of Hopkins v. Hosemann that by banning former offenders “from the body politic forever” they will be punished “beyond the term their culpability requires,” according…

Read More

FL: Revisions made to Hernando County Sex Offender and Sexual Predator Ordinance

R H

Source: hernandosun.com 8/4/23 Last week, the Hernando Sun ran a story on recent changes to the Hernando County Sexual Offender and Sexual Offender Ordinance found in Chapter 21 of the Code of Ordinances. The story was largely based on a copy of the revised ordinance posted on the BOCC website for their July 11th meeting. We have learned that the copy of the ordinance posted did not reflect some of the final revisions. County Commissioner John Allocco spoke with us about the final revisions and why the changes were needed.…

Read More

United States Sentencing Commission Public Meeting Scheduled for Aug 24, 2023

R H

Source: content.govdelivery.com 8/7/23 Commission to Vote on Final Priorities and May Vote to Make the 2023 Criminal History Amendment (Parts A and B) Retroactive We invite you to join us on Thursday, August 24, 2023 at 3 p.m. (EDT) for a public meeting of the U.S. Sentencing Commission. The meeting will be held at the Thurgood Marshall Federal Judiciary Building, One Columbus Circle, N.E., in Suite 2-500 (South Lobby).  The meeting will be livestreamed . The agenda follows: Report of the Chair Possible Vote on Adoption of April 2023 Meeting…

Read More

FBI finds 200 sex trafficking victims, 59 missing children in two-week sweep

R H

Source: nbcnews.com 8/1/23 The FBI found 200 sex trafficking victims and more than 125 suspects during a two-week child exploitation operation in July, federal officials said Tuesday. During “Operation Cross County,” the FBI located 59 victims of child sex trafficking and child sexual exploitation and 59 missing children. The FBI teamed with state and local agencies to identify or arrest 126 suspects of child sexual exploitation and human trafficking and 68 suspected traffickers. Read the full article  

Read More

Kids’ Online Safety Policy Bill is a Pretext for Censorship

R H

Source: newrepublic.com 8/2/23 The first thing you need to know about the latest bill in Congress meant to protect children on the internet is that one of its co-sponsors has been waging this fight against tech platforms since the days of MySpace. This bill, the Kids Online Safety Act, or KOSA, concerns children who were not yet born at the dawn of social media, whose parents could once have jockeyed to remain in each other’s Top 8, while their own parents in turn may have sounded the alarm about such…

Read More

Chief Justice John Roberts defends legitimacy of court

R H

Source: news.yahoo.com 9/10/22 COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) — Chief Justice John Roberts on Friday defended the authority of the Supreme Court to interpret the Constitution, saying its role should not be called into question just because people disagree with its decisions. When asked to reflect on the last year at the court in his first public appearance since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, Roberts said he was concerned that lately some critics of the court’s controversial decisions have questioned the legitimacy of the court, which he said…

Read More

FL: Sex offender camp growing in Florida woods; public apparently not warned

R H

Source: fox8.com 7/28/23 CLEARWATER, Florida (WFLA) — A Florida camp powered by solar panels and a generator is home to about a dozen sex offenders who claim they were sent there by probation officers, but there is no indication the public was alerted. Land records indicate the tents that sit under a structure made from branches are on land owned by the Florida Department of Transportation. A state spokesperson said they were “not aware of this.” Several sources, including a defense attorney, told Nexstar’s WFLA that anyone on probation is…

Read More

MS: Mississippi to pay more than $400K in attorneys’ fees over unconstitutional sodomy law

R H

Source: mississippitoday.org 7/28/23 Mississippi will have to pay more than $400,000 in attorneys’ fees after the attorney general’s office spent years defending a sodomy law that criminalizes oral and anal sex.  The law in question — Section 97-29-59 — was deemed unconstitutional in 2003 when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the case Lawrence v. Texas that private sexual conduct was constitutionally protected.  But Mississippi kept its sodomy law on the books, opening the door for a 2016 legal challenge that resulted in the expensive attorneys’ fees.  The AGs office,…

Read More

NC: Keeping tabs on registered sex offenders part of a three-day operation in Cleveland Co.

R H

Source: wbtv.com 7/26/23 CLEVELAND COUNTY, N.C. (WBTV) – Cleveland County deputies have been out for the past two days checking on convicted sex offenders in the area. Dozens of officers both in uniform and plain clothes are making sure those convicted of the crime are living where they’re supposed to and staying away from schools, parks and anywhere children may congregate. Teams that fanned out making close to 400 compliance checks to make sure registered sex offenders are playing by the rules. … A person charged with a sex offense…

Read More

OH: Reagan Tokes law ruled constitutional by state Supreme Court

R H

Source: 10tv.com 7/26/23 COLUMBUS, Ohio — The Ohio Supreme Court has ruled that a state law allowing prison officials to keep prisoners beyond their sentence if the prisoner violates the law while incarcerated is constitutional. In a 5-2 decision on Wednesday, the state’s highest court found that the Reagan Tokes law does not violate the constitutional rights of inmates.   The law was passed in 2019 and named after the 21-year-old Ohio State senior who was killed in February 2017. Tokes was kidnapped, raped and fatally shot by Brian Golsby,…

Read More

AZ: Navajo Council passes legislation to improve sex offender registration

R H

Source: nhonews.com 7/25/23 On the final day of the 2023 Navajo Nation Council Summer Session, Legislation No. 0104-23 was introduced to amend the Sex Offenders Registration and Notification Act (SORNA) in Title 17 of the Navajo Nation Code. The legislation aims to allow civilian employees of the Navajo Nation Police Department to help register sex offenders in a timely manner, along with handling administrative tasks related to registration. Currently, only Navajo police officers are responsible for sex offender registration, which sometimes poses challenges due to their field duties and emergency…

Read More

AK: Mat-Su bans sex offenders from living near childcare centers, schools, parks

R H

Source: alaskawatchman.com 7/20/23 In an effort to protect children from sex crimes, the Mat-Su Borough Assembly approved a new ordinance that prohibits sex offenders from taking up permanent residence within 1,000 feet of any school, daycare facility or public park. Approved at the assembly’s July 18 meeting, the ordinance does not apply to sex offenders who live in a restricted zone prior to the new law. Sex offenders may not, however, purchase or lease a new permanent residence within the restricted areas. Introduced by Assemblyman Ron Bernier, the law is…

Read More