Category: National

TX: Automatic license plate readers helping to deter crime and track registrants in Houston-area cities

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Source: khou.com 2/21/22 HOUSTON — Some Houston-area cities are fighting crime by installing virtual gates around their communities. Dozens of cameras are taking millions of pictures of driver’s license plates each month. One local police chief said the technology helped catch 25 times as many suspects in wanted vehicles as the year before. Each time a vehicle passes one of the automatic license plate reading cameras in the Memorial Villages, a picture is taken. … In addition to stolen vehicles and missing persons, the Memorial Villages Police Department is alerted…

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‘Staggering’ study reveals 46% of unemployed U.S. men have criminal convictions

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Source: science.org 2/18/22 One in three adults in the United States has been arrested at least once, a strikingly high number compared with many other countries. Now, a new study reveals one of the implications of that figure: Nearly half of unemployed U.S. men have a criminal conviction by age 35, which makes it harder to get a job, according to an analysis of survey data. The findings suggest having a criminal justice history is pushing many men to the sidelines of the job market, says sociologist Sarah Esther Lageson…

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KS: These two child porn crimes don’t require sex offender registration. A Kansas bill would change that.

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Source: cjonline.com 2/8/22 Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt is pushing for lawmakers to require people convicted of certain child pornography crimes to register as sex offenders. “This is a matter of the law needing to catch up with technology,” Schmidt said in a statement. “Sadly, as the methods of distributing visual depictions of children being sexually abused have expanded, so too must the legal tools available to respond to that sort of illegal behavior that harms kids. This added tool is needed to help prevent more kids from becoming victims.” Senate…

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GA: US probation officer told Irish sex offender facing homelessness ‘to go and live in tent’

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Source: breakingnews.ie 2/8/22 An Irish man who was jailed for trying to entice a child for indecent purposes was told to “go and live in a tent” by a probation officer in the United States, the Court of Appeal was told on Tuesday. Martin ___(46) was caught in a police sting in the State of Georgia after he sent a nude selfie to an Internet chatroom user he believed was 13-year-old girl. He later fled the US to Ireland while on probation, and has been fighting attempts to extradite him…

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KS: Victims advocate lawmakers to force convicted peeping suspects onto sex offender registry

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Source: kshb.com 2/7/22 KANSAS CITY, KS. — On Tuesday, the Kansas State Senate is set to hear a sex offender law in Topeka. Kansas Senate Bill 385 would require people convicted of certain breach of privacy offenses, like peeping, to register as a sex offender. This is something victims and advocates have been fight for after several peeping cases here in the Kansas City area. Former Johnson County prosecutor Jason Covington has been working on these type of cases for years. “No place was safe. It could be a retail…

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MI: ACLU Sues State Officials for the Fourth Time over Unconstitutional Michigan Sex Offender Registration Act

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Source: aclumich.org 2/2/22 Civil rights organization says it’s unconstitutional to label people for life without individual review  DETROIT – Today the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan (ACLU), on behalf of 10 people who all previously won federal court rulings that Michigan’s Sex Offenders Registration Act (SORA) is unconstitutional, filed a federal class action lawsuit against state officials over the latest version of the law. It is the fourth federal lawsuit the civil rights organization has filed challenging SORA in the past decade. The federal courts and the Michigan Supreme…

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GA: 11th Circuit Says a Sheriff Violated the First Amendment by Posting Warning Signs on the Lawns of Registered Sex Offenders

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Source: Reason.com 2/1/22 Butts County, Georgia, Sheriff Gary Long cited no evidence to support his pre-Halloween stunt. JACOB SULLUM | 2.1.2022 6:25 PM A Georgia sheriff violated the First Amendment when he posted signs on the lawns of registered sex offenders to warn away trick-or-treaters, a federal appeals court said in a recent ruling. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit unanimously concluded that the signs amounted to unconstitutional government-compelled speech. The decision strikes a blow against irrational policies that stigmatize sex offenders without any plausible…

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ACSOL New Jersey Action Alert: Petition to Abolish or Reform the New Jersey SVP Civil Commitment Law

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Source: Jim Grushack started this petition on Change.org to New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy The symbol above is associated with the legal system and the principles of fairness and equity. Then, why is it that the symbol of justice, is wearing a blind fold?  Is it because the legal system only wants to see, what it wants to see? Plus, she is carrying a sword, to protect and to cut through to the truth. So what truth is she protecting, certainly not the accused sex offender?  Eleanor Roosevelt once stated, “Justice…

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AL, OK: U.S. Marshals arrest Oklahoma fugitive sex offender in Alabama after 14 years

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Source: news.yahoo.com 1/27/22 U.S. Marshals in Alabama on Wednesday arrested an Oklahoma sex offender who’d been on the run for 14 years. David _____, 49, had been wanted since 2008 for failing to register as a sex offender in Caddo County, and for violating the terms of his probation in Seminole and Pottawatomie counties after 2006 felony convictions of enticing a minor and first-degree rape. Read the full article  

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FL: Is Profit Driving Florida’s Sex Offense Registry?

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Source: thecrimereport.org 1/27/22 In 2019, I was falsely accused of a petty theft in Broward County, Florida, despite living over 1,100 miles from the alleged offense and having no transportation. I was arrested by my local police agency and spent 24 days incarcerated, including the six days it took to transport me from Ohio to Florida so I could bond out and mount my defense. But Florida delayed my release in order to force me to register on the public sex offense registry. I have never lived in the state…

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UT: Senator will not pursue sex offender registry amendment removing the term “sex offender” and some presence restrictions

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Source: kslnewsradio.com 1/6/22 SALT LAKE CITY — A bill that would have proposed changes to the Sex Offender Registry in Utah will not move forward in the 2022 legislative session after all.  Sen. Michael Kennedy, R-Alpine, initially filed SB0052 late in 2021. It would have potentially allowed registered sex offenders to go to places like schools and parks, if they are with an adult. The bill would also have replaced the term “sex offender” with registrant. Read the full story  

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ALI Leaders Delay Vote on Revised Model Penal Code

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Source: ACSOL According to early reports from ALI members, the leaders of the American Law Institute (ALI) have decided to delay their consideration of the revised Model Penal Code (MPC). This decision was made late last week during a two-day meeting of the ALI Council held on January 20 and 21. Members of the ALI overwhelmingly voted in support the revised MPC in June 2021 and approval by the ALI Council was expected.  However, opposition to the revised MPC was subsequently expressed by Attorneys General in 37 states as well…

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VA: Former Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam pardoned a state senator with a misdemeanor for his relationship with his 17-year-old assistant

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Source: businessinsider.com 1/23/22 On his way out of office, former Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam pardoned a state senator who was convicted in 2014 for dating his 17-year-old law firm assistant who would later become his wife and the mother of his children.  Northam issued a simple pardon for State Sen. Joe Morrissey, a Democrat from Richmond, for a misdemeanor count of contributing to the delinquency of a minor, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported.  “To say that I was extremely pleased with what the governor did would be, perhaps for me, the…

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11th Circuit Declares Halloween Signs Violate First Amendment

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Source: ACSOL The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals issued a decision today that declares Halloween signs posted in a registrant’s front yard violate the First Amendment.  Specifically, the Court ruled that the signs violated the registrant’s right to be free from being forced to host a government message on his private property.  At issue were signs posted by the sheriff in Butts County, Georgia. In its decision, the Court stated “that the Sheriff’s interest in protecting children from sexual abuse is compelling.  However, the yard signs are not narrowly tailored…

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MI: Trial in double murder of sex offenders in Adrian delayed until May

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Source: lenconnect.com 1/14/22 ADRIAN — A trial in the case of a Morenci man who is accused of shooting to death two registered sex offenders and committing other crimes almost a year ago has been delayed again.  This time, it is rising COVID-19 case numbers and his attorney’s health that are causing Christopher Lee-Ryan Carden to have to wait to go on trial in Lenawee County Circuit Court. The trial’s new start date is May 17.  … Carden is charged with open murder in the deaths of Samuel Compton, 82, and Robert Braman Sr., 67, both of…

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OR: Lawmakers, advocates retry passing bill that would compensate wrongfully-convicted Oregonians

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Source: statesmanjournal.com 1/15/22 Criminal justice reform advocates are taking another crack at passing a law that would compensate wrongfully convicted Oregonians — this time, with the Department of Justice’s support. … Plus, individuals would get up to $25,000 for years spent on parole, post-prison supervision or on the sex offender registry. Read the full article  

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IL: Illinois judge who reversed sex offender’s conviction is reassigned

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Source: nydailynews.com 1/15/22 The Illinois judge who sparked outrage after reversing a sex offender’s conviction has been reassigned. According to the Herald-Whig newspaper, on Thursday Adams County Judge Robert Adrian was removed from presiding criminal cases and reassigned to civil cases — including small claims, legal matters and probate dockets. Adrian first made headlines earlier this month, after he overturned the conviction of 18-year-old Drew Clinton, who had been found guilty in the sexual assault of a 16-year-old girl last year. Read the full article  

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