Source: miamiherald.com 2/27/23 There’s no argument: Jared Stephens committed a crime, and he deserved some form of punishment. We’re not suggesting that child pornography isn’t an evil act. Possessing it is a crime for good reason. But the fight now in Florida courts to reduce the 150-year prison term Stephens received is about more than laws and sentences. It’s about how how our judicial system treats defendants with serious mental illness. The question is whether the 32-year-old man diagnosed with schizophrenia — who talked in court about shutting off electricity…
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AZ: Arizona Senate Committees Pass Two Bills in GOP Push to Criminalize Drag
Source: phoenixnewtimes.com 2/24/23 A group of Republican state lawmakers focused on attacking LGBTQ Arizonans passed two bills that would criminalize drag shows, businesses that host them, and parents who take their children to see them. SB 1698, sponsored by Senator Justine Wadsack, would make it a felony for parents to take their child to a drag show. The parents would have to register as sex offenders, too. SB 1030, sponsored by state Senator Anthony Kern, would make it a felony for some businesses to host drag shows. Republicans in the…
Read MoreIN: Killer of Registrant Sentenced to 75 years But Has No Remorse
Source: tristatehomepage.com 2/23/23 EVANSVILLE, Ind. (WEHT) — An Evansville man will spend decades behind bars for murdering a sex offender. According to court documents, 34-year-old Ricky Allen Kiper Jr. was sentenced to 60 years in prison and 15 years for a habitual offender enhancement after pleading guilty to murder several weeks ago. Kiper shot and killed James ____ at a home on the northside of Evansville on July 27, 2022. After the shooting, officials confirmed that the deceased victim was on the sex offender registry list. Read the full article…
Read MoreMan Offers First Class Seat To Child In Coach, American Airlines Suspects He’s A Predator
Source: viewfromthewing.com 2/23/23 An American Airlines ConciergeKey passenger, one of the carrier’s top customers, shared to social media that they were flying from Portland to Dallas on Tuesday’s flight 2655 and wound up suspected of being a child predator – because they tried to do a good deed, giving up their first class seat for an unaccompanied minor seated in coach. They were heading to Dallas to connect to a British Airways flight to London. Pre-boarding (since ConciergeKey members board ahead of first class, even), they noticed “a very young…
Read MoreTN: Multi-day sex offender compliance operation completed in Carroll Co.
Source: wbbjtv.com 2/23/23 HUNTINGDON, Tenn. — Multiple law enforcement agencies joined this week to conduct a sex offender compliance operation in Carroll County. Dubbed Operation Walter Browning, the two-day saturation was conducted on Tuesday and Wednesday. According to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, the operation involved compliance checks for 47 registered sex offenders throughout Carroll County. The TBI says authorities made contact with 39 of those individuals, and all but one were found to be in complia Read the full article
Read MoreFL: Century Man Tries To Run Over Man He Thought Was Convicted Sex Offender, ECSO Says
Source: northescambia.com 2/22/23 A Century man is charged after allegedly trying to run over a man he thought was a convicted sex offender as he walked out of a liquor store. Kinte Hassan Franklin, 45, was charged with felony aggravated battery using a deadly weapon. The victim told the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office that Franklin was the driver of a maroon car with the window partially down outside the Fusion Liquor store next door to the Food Giant on North Century Boulevard. The driver, Franklin, told him “I’m going to…
Read MoreKS: Protecting kids is job one, but this Kansas proposal would just create new criminals | Opinion
Source: kansascity.com 2/20/23 When something horrific happens to a child, the impulse is to take every action necessary to ensure it never happens to any child anywhere again. That tendency is understandable and often praiseworthy — but there are times it can also be destructive. So it goes with “Lailah’s Law,” a bill now under consideration in the Kansas House. The legislation is named for a 7-year-old Wichita girl who was assaulted and nearly killed in 2017 by Corbin Breitenbach, who had recently been paroled on a previous conviction of…
Read MoreOH: Tech makes registering sex offenders easier
Source: thecourier.com 2/19/23 FREMONT — All 88 county sheriffs have been provided with new cameras to improve the registration process of convicted sexual offenders, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost announced Friday. “Ohio’s sex offender registration system plays a critical role in holding convicted offenders accountable, and, in the hands our county sheriffs, these tools ensure that photographs are clear and uniform across the state,” Yost said. “Our job is to support local law enforcement, and that’s exactly what we’re doing with this grant.” In 59 counties, sheriff’s offices that requested…
Read MorePA: Superior Court finds no vindictiveness by judge, Bedford DA
Source: altoonamirror.com 2/16/23 An opinion handed down by the Pennsylvania Superior Court this week has found that a Bedford County man failed to prove his new minimum sentence of 26.5 years on child abuse charges — more than double his original sentence for the crimes — was based on the “vindictivness” of the judge and district attorney. Mark Allen _____, 53, who is serving his sentence in the State Correctional Institution at Laurel Highlands, sought to show that his new and much tougher sentence was unconstitutional because Bedford County authorities…
Read MoreLA: Lawmakers, investigators working on ways to prevent sex crimes against children
Source: wafb.com 2/14/23 BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) – Louisiana leaders are reporting a sharp increase in the amount of sex crimes committed against children. At a special committee meeting Tuesday, Feb. 14, one investigator described the fight as “a war the state is losing.” “There are so many cases it’s a tidal wave of tragedy,” said Davis Ferris, an investigator from the Attorney General’s office. Ferris says the state’s six cybercrime agents are working close to 6000 cases on top of new ones coming in every day. State leaders believe…
Read MoreNY: New York to pay Anthony Broadwater $5.5M for wrongful conviction in rape of Alice Sebold
Source: syracuse.com 2/14/23 Syracuse, NY – New York State has agreed to pay $5.5 million to Syracuse resident Anthony Broadwater for his wrongful conviction in the 1981 rape of Alice Sebold, who later turned her account of the attack into the best-selling memoir “Lucky.” Broadwater, now 62, spent 16 ½ years in state prison and more than two decades longer on the sex offender registry for a conviction based on a botched police lineup as well as since-debunked science. He was a young Black man who returned to Syracuse from…
Read MoreWY: Committee Kills Bill Making It Harder For Sex Offenders To Get Off Wyoming Registry
Source: cowboystatedaily.com 2/13/2023 A proposed Wyoming law geared toward making fewer sex offenders able to get their names off the sex offender registry died in the Senate Judiciary Committee on Monday after lawmakers said the bill’s language confused, rather than clarified, the issue. Committee Chairman Sen. Bill Landen, R-Casper, said he wants to resurrect a better version of the bill in time for next year’s legislative session. Bill sponsor Rep. Christopher Knapp, R-Gillette, said he intended for House Bill 90 to broaden the category of sex offenders in Wyoming who…
Read MoreMT: Montana House Advances Obscenity Bill That Would Subject School Employees to Criminal Liability
Source: msn.com 2/12/23 The Montana House advanced a bill Wednesday that seeks to open up public school employees to prosecution if they show or provide children with materials deemed to be obscene. House Bill 234, sponsored by Lindsay Republican Bob Phalen, passed its second reading in a 55-45 vote, with 13 Republicans voting against it along with all Democrats. It is scheduled for its final House reading Thursday. Phalen, as he did in committee, told the chamber that he believes obscene material, like pornography, should be banned in schools just…
Read MoreWA: ‘End SVP releases into our communities’: Residents push for new legislation regarding sex-offender housing
Source: q13fox.com 2/11/23 OLYMPIA, WASH. – Residents say they are being blindsided by the locations and sudden pop-up of facilities that will house the highest level of sex offenders. Now state lawmakers are pushing new bills to clear up the situation. Residents in Tenino have been pushing against a Less Restrictive Alternative (LRA) facility since Jan.11. On Friday, several gathered outside a facility in Olympia lining the street with signs saying “Keep Tenino Safe”, “Our community is not your guinea pig” and “Community over profit”. The facility off Martin Way…
Read MoreFL: Lifetime Registration for Florida Sex Offenders Isn’t ‘Custody’
Source: The United States Court of Appeals For the Eleventh Circuit 2/9/23 The question before us in this appeal—one of first impression—is whether Florida’s registration and reporting requirements for sex offenders render those offenders “in custody” within the meaning of § 2254(a). Though the question is difficult given Supreme Court and Eleventh Circuit precedent, our answer is no. … The Florida sex offender registration statute, in contrast, did not impose a “sentence” and did not constitute “punishment.” Download a PDF of the decision: Eleventh-Circuit-Ruling-No.-21-12540-D.C.-Docket-No.-217-cv-00396-JLB-NPM.pdf
Read MoreWI: Mauston facing legal uncertainty over living facility for sex offenders: ‘They’re still going to need a place to live.’
Source: wiscnews.com 2/9/23 Tammy Most and her husband have three children, their youngest being an 8-year-old daughter. They moved into their house near the heart of Mauston’s historic downtown area in 2012, but they didn’t know that their new home would come with a constant state of unease. … Directly across from Most’s residence sits 108 Wisconsin Street. It’s a modest two-story duplex, and it’s served as a rental property since 1997. The City of Mauston is contemplating legal action that would evict its tenants — at least three sex…
Read MoreIL: Illinois gets penalized yearly for not meeting federal Sex Offender Registry standards, but keeps getting money back
Source: cbsnews.com 2/7/23 CHICAGO (CBS) — Illinois loses grant money every year as a penalty for failing to meet federal standards with our Sex Offender Registry. CBS 2’s Tara Molina found Illinois manages to get that money back – more than $2.5 million worth. But the state still is not in good standing. This has been going on for more than 10 years. Illinois loses grant money every single year since the state isn’t in compliance with the federal Sex Offender Registry and Notification Act, or SORNA. But we found…
Read MoreAR: ‘Public safety bill’ to give more disclosure for high-level sex offenders on registry
Source: kark.com 2/7/23 LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Lawmakers in Arkansas say public safety is one of the top priorities this legislative session. As of Monday, more and more legislators are signing off on a bill that would provide full disclosure on the sex offender registry in Arkansas when it comes to where exactly the highest-level sex offenders live. HB1004 would amend the Sex Offender Registry Act to include the exact house, apartment, or unit number of level three and four sex offenders. The current law only requires the street name…
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