Source: ACSOL The leadership of the American Law Institute is scheduled to consider during its meeting on January 20 and January 21 the revised model penal code approved overwhelmingly by its members in June 2021. The revised model penal code includes recommendations that state penal codes be changed in a number of ways, including but not limited to, reducing the number of sex offenses that require registration, limiting registration to a maximum of 15 years, and making the registry available only to law enforcement. After ALI members voted in favor…
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SC: It’s 2022 and these gay men are still on the sex offender registry for consensual sex
Source: queerty.com 1/3/22 A lawsuit filed last month revealed that at least 19 people are still required to register as sex offenders due to past convictions under South Carolina’s “buggery” law for having consensual gay sex. The SC law, along with other states’ anti-sodomy laws, were made invalid in 2003, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Texas’ anti-sodomy law was unconstitutional. While pardons were granted for those targeted by the laws, the convictions still require them to remain on the sex offenders list in South Carolina and two other…
Read MoreFL: Homeless offenders in Brevard County struggle to find resources and shelter
Source: floridatoday.com 1/3/22 Jason ____ is sitting in Brevard County Jail waiting to appear before a judge on a charge of violating parole. He’d rather be anywhere else, but the reality is he’s not wanted many other places. A charge against him made in 1998 at 15 years old, of which he was convicted in 2000, has marked him as a sex offender. He is one of 735 registered sex offenders in Brevard County, according to statistics from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. That status makes Jason something of a…
Read MoreVA: Professor’s redefinition of pedophilia could help offenders demand rights
Source: nypost.com 1/1/22 On Nov. 8, Old Dominion sociology and criminology professor Allyn Walker gave an interview in which he asserted the need to destigmatize pedophiles by redefining them as “minor-attracted persons” (MAPs). Walker stated, “We have a tendency to want to categorize people with these attractions as evil or morally corrupt,” and that when people “hear the term ‘pedophile,’ they automatically assume that it means a sex offender, and that isn’t true.” Shortly after this interview, students at Old Dominion protested over the professor’s attempt to obfuscate the nature…
Read MoreIL: Changes will deny probation for some child pornographers
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Source: wgem.com 12/29/21 QUINCY (WGEM) – There’s a change to a law that has to do with possession of child pornography. Legislators closed a loophole that allowed family members found to be in possession of child pornography to escape jail time. Starting on Jan. 1, possession of child pornography when the child is a household or family member is a non-probational offense. This means the offender will serve jail time if convicted. Previously, this category of offenders could receive a sentence of probation for their pornography conviction. Read the full…
Read MoreUtah Action Alert: Support Senate Bill 52 to lessen restrictions on sex offenders
Source: ksl.com 12/30/21 SALT LAKE CITY — A bill that could come up in the 2022 legislative session would change restrictions for sex offenders. The bill is sponsored by Utah state Sen. Mike Kennedy, R-Alpine. The bill that could come up in next month’s legislative session would amend the state’s sex offender registry. Senate Bill 0052 would allow registered sex offenders to go to places like schools and parks, if they are with an adult. Also, if passed, the bill would replace the term “sex offender” with “registrant.” Read the…
Read MorePA: Another Blow to SORNA I with Failure to Register Conviction Relief
Source: parsol.org 12/28/21 December 22, 2021 has seen the release of many case opinions from the PA Supreme Court (SCOPA) with Commonwealth v. David Santana being the biggest win for our advocacy efforts. In a 5-2 decision, SCOPA affirmed the Superior Court’s opinion that “Mr. Santana’s registration requirement under SORNA was an after-the-fact punishment, and therefore unconstitutional. Accordingly, he had no duty to comply with those requirements and his conviction for ignoring them, under 18 Pa.C.S.A. § 4915.1(a)(3) [failure to provide accurate information], was a manifest injustice and must be…
Read MoreMI: Former Detroit City Council president just before prison release: ‘What I did was wrong’
Source: freep.com 12/24/21 Clouds hovered overhead on the morning Charles Pugh, 50, took his first steps to freedom outside the doors of the Bellamy Creek Correctional Facility into the brisk December air. Pugh was met by his friends and family who were waiting to pick him up in Ionia from the place where he had spent the last 5½ years following his 2016 convictions on two felony counts of third-degree criminal sexual conduct with a child under 16. “What I did was wrong,” Pugh admitted to the Detroit Free Press…
Read MoreSC: Lawsuit: SC man says he still has to register as sex offender for having sex with another man
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Source: live5news.com 12/22/21 CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) – A South Carolina man is suing Attorney General Alan Wilson and SLED Chief Mark Keel, claiming that he still has to register as a sex offender for a buggery charge in which he says he was convicted, and later pardoned, for having consensual sex with another man. The man, identified as “John Doe” in the lawsuit, says he was convicted for the charge in 2001, two years before the Supreme Court ruled that laws that criminalized homosexual sex violated due process and are…
Read MoreCO: Colorado board reverses controversial change to “sex offender” label
Source: denverpost.com 12/20/21 Under pressure from the governor and the state’s public safety director, Colorado’s Sex Offender Management Board has reversed its controversial November decision to scrap the term “sex offenders” in its own guiding principles in favor of “adults who commit sexual offenses.” The board, commonly referred to as the SOMB, voted 16-2 on Dec. 17 to “table” the language-change matter and refer it back to a subcommittee. It’s possible the board votes again to change terminology in the future, but the tabling means it’s not likely to happen…
Read MoreFederal Circuit Court Affirms Below Guideline Sentence
Source: ACSOL The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit affirmed today a below guideline sentence issued to a registrant by a federal trial court. The registrant pled guilty to one charge — attempted coercion or enticement of a minor — and could have been sentenced to prison for up to 57 months. Instead, the trial court sentenced the registrant to time served (two months) as well as 120 months of supervised release, one year of home confinement, participation in a sex offender treatment program and registration as a…
Read MoreGA: Georgia sex offenders take fight over ‘no-trick-or-treat’ warning signs to 11th Circuit
Source: courthousenews.com 12/18/2021 A group of registered sex offenders have asked the appeals court to overturn a federal judge’s ruling in favor of a sheriff’s office that posted signs telling trick-or-treaters to keep away from the offenders’ homes on Halloween. ATLANTA (CN) — A class of registered sex offenders asked an 11th Circuit panel Friday to overturn a federal judge’s ruling allowing Georgia sheriff’s deputies to put warning signs on their lawns before Halloween. The Butts County Sheriff’s Office has argued in legal briefs that it was merely trying to…
Read MoreNC: Flat Rock Middle employee arrested, terminated on charges of having registered sex offender husband on campus
Source: blueridgenow.com 12/17/21 A Flat Rock Middle School employee has been terminated after her arrest by the Henderson County Sheriff’s Office on charges of having a registered sex offender on campus, according to police. The Sheriff’s Office was notified Dec. 16 that Maria ____ is married to a registered sex offender, Jeffery _____, and that he had been seen in a vehicle on the school campus, according to a HCSO news release. It is illegal for a registered sex offender to be on school property at any time. Jeffery is…
Read MoreFL: Ocala man torches neighbor’s home because of rumor victim was a pedophile, police say
Source: clickorlando.com 12/14/21 OCALA, Fla. – Ocala police arrested a man Monday who they believe started a fire that damaged a mobile home in early December. Kenneth Bryant, 42, was arrested at Wagon Wheel Mobile Home Park. According to the arrest report, Bryant told police he couldn’t remember the incident because he was too intoxicated but said he was not fond of the victim because of rumors that the man was a child molester. Police said they responded to an arson call at the same mobile home park in the…
Read MoreFL: Members of homeless camp arrested on charges of violating probation after camp was shut down
Source: yahoo.com 12/11/21 Note: This article is a follow up to the original article: ‘Literally nowhere else they can go’: Homeless camp shutdown leaves people with few options (floridatoday.com 12/8/21) A group of homeless people was arrested Friday afternoon for violating probation after their camp, where they were required by their probation officers to stay, was shut down and there was nowhere else for them to go. Of the 13 people who had been living at the camp, at least seven had GPS monitors or ankle bracelets registered to the site —…
Read MoreMO: Former police officer, detective sentenced to five years probation in sodomy case
Source: emissourian.com 12/6/21 A rural Washington man who previously worked as a municipal police officer and a county sheriff’s detective has been sentenced to probation after pleading guilty to sodomizing a boy that police say he met online. Ryan Shomaker, 48, who previously lived in the 600 block of Royal Oaks Court, pleaded guilty Nov. 22 to one count of second-degree statutory sodomy. He was originally charged with two counts of sodomy, but prosecutors dropped one of the charges in exchange for the plea. St. Louis County Circuit Court Judge…
Read MoreFL: ‘Literally nowhere else they can go’: Homeless camp shutdown leaves people with few options
Source: floridatoday.com 12/9/21 Joshua Werbicki has made a home in the woods at 4820 Highway 192 near Melbourne. His driver’s license lists the campsite as his permanent residence. The GPS monitor he must wear as part of his probation requires him to stay at the camp at night. But Werbicki and approximately 12 others say they were told the property owner now wants the site bulldozed this week. They said they were originally given until 8 a.m. Wednesday to vacate by the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office. At least seven of them have GPS…
Read MoreFederal Government Finalizes SORNA Regulations (and Emergency ACSOL Zoom meeting recording )
UPDATE: Read a summary of the SORNA meeting Listen to the recording of the meeting The federal government today published final SORNA regulations in the Federal Register. According to this publication, the regulations will become effective on January 7, 2022. “The only thing that can stop these regulations is a formal objection by Congress during the next 30 days which is unlikely to happen,” stated ACSOL Executive Director Janice Bellucci. “Therefore we must prepare to challenge the regulations through litigation filed in federal courts.” Despite acknowledging that more than 700…
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