Source: eastidahonews.com 8/8/24 [ACSOL note: this article makes an important point about the lack of relevance about a persons religion] CASCADE (Idaho Statesman) — The Valley County Sheriff’s Office included an intriguing detail recently when it announced that a suspect pleaded guilty to possessing or accessing sexually exploitative material of a child. The result was a lot of online chatter and controversy. In a Facebook post, the Sheriff’s Office wrote that the 22-year-old man was “a member of the Idaho chapter of The Satanic Temple.” … Groups such as the…
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TN: Death penalty for child rapists does more harm than good. Tennessee erred on new law
Source: tennessean.com 7/7/24 If you expand the pool of potential capital defendants to include non-lethal child rape, you substantially increase the potential for wrongful convictions. Against the advice of child service providers and experts, the legislature recently passed a bill to expand the death penalty to individuals who sexually abuse children. As the mother of three young children, I understand the desire to punish people who commit these reprehensible crimes. However, as someone who has served as a victim-witness coordinator for the Davidson County District Attorney’s Office, a probation officer,…
Read MoreMS: Mississippi’s sodomy law cost taxpayers nearly half a million dollars, but remains on the books
Source: dailykos.com 7/6/24 Mississippi coughed up more than $400,000 this year to attorneys who sued the state over an unconstitutional sodomy law that criminalizes oral and anal sex, and if a similar suit is filed in the future, it could pay even more money. The Legislature appropriated and paid the fees to civil rights attorneys from multiple legal organizations after Mississippi Attorneys General Jim Hood and Lynn Fitch spent years defending the antiquated sodomy law—Mississippi Code Section 97-29-59. But Mississippi could be on the hook for even more fees, according…
Read MoreAR: Civilian groups responsible for multiple arrests of alleged child predators in Arkansas
Source: 5newsonline.com 7/5/24 BENTON COUNTY, ARKANSAS, Ark. — Multiple different civilian groups have been credited with helping in the arrest of alleged child On June 26, Daniel ____ was arrested and booked in the Sebastian County Detention Center for possession or use of child sexual abuse material. An affidavit says that on May 26, officers responded to Rogers Avenue in Fort Smith for a disorderly conduct call. On the scene, officers made contact with three people claiming to be part of a group called Oklahoma Predator Prevention. The men…
Read More‘American Ninja Warrior’ winner Drew Drechsel sentenced to 10 years for child sex crimes
Source: msn.com 6/28/24 Andrew ‘Drew’ Drechsel, who won Season 11 of NBC’s American Ninja Warrior in 2019, has been sentenced to just over 10 years in prison after being charged with multiple child sex crimes. As reported by People, Drechsel was arrested at his home in Florida back in August 2020 after engaging in a sexual relationship with a teenage girl in 2014 after they met at an event. Read the full article
Read MoreSupreme Court takes sledgehammer to federal agency power in Chevron case
Source: thehill.com 6/28/24 The Supreme Court took a sledgehammer to executive agencies’ power Friday by overruling a prominent precedent that bolstered their ability to implement regulations in wide areas of American life, including consumer and environmental protections. In an 6-3 decision along ideological lines, the Supreme Court’s conservative majority upended a 40-year administrative law precedent that gave agencies across the federal government leeway to interpret ambiguous laws through rulemaking. Known as Chevron deference, the now-overturned legal doctrine instructed judges to defer to agencies in cases where the law is ambiguous.…
Read MoreSCOTUS Makes It Easier for Victims of Retaliatory Arrests To Vindicate Their First Amendment Rights
Source: reason.com 6/20/24 When someone claims to have been arrested in retaliation for constitutionally protected speech, what sort of evidence is necessary to make that case? Five years ago in Nieves v. Bartlett, the Supreme Court held that an arrest can violate the First Amendment even if it was based on probable cause, provided the claimant can present “objective evidence that he was arrested when otherwise similarly situated individuals not engaged in the same sort of protected speech had not been.” Today in Gonzalez v. Trevino, the Court said that showing…
Read MoreFL: MMA fighter turns vigilante: Man busts alleged child predator at Walmart
Source: abc45.com 6/21/24 DELRAY BEACH, Fla. (CBS12) — As a professional MMA fighter, Dustin “Scrappy” Lampros spends most of his days training for the ring. But in his free time, he fights for those who can’t defend themselves: hunting down predators who prey on children. One recent case involved Nicholas _____, 43, who was recently arrested for allegedly attempting to meet a minor for illicit purposes. The incident unfolded at a Walmart in Delray Beach. “I have the time to go and do this. Also, I have the skill set…
Read MoreCongress can score another bipartisan win for safety and justice
Source: thehill.com 6/18/24 As a recent eruption between members of the House Oversight Committee demonstrated, Congress doesn’t always model good behavior. But beyond the theatrics and gridlock that make headlines, many Americans might be pleasantly surprised to find encouraging examples of serious lawmakers working together. The bipartisan Safer Supervision Act is just that. The legislation, co-authored by Senators John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Chris Coons (D-Del.), aligns with the research on what works to make communities safer and provide second chances, building on the success of the First Step Act, on which a Democratic Congress and…
Read MoreJudge Tosses Biometric Data Suit Against X
Source: reason.com 6/19/24 X’s child porn detection system doesn’t violate an Illinois biometric privacy law, the judge ruled. A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit concerning the software X (formerly Twitter) uses to find illegal porn images. The suit was brought by Mark Martell, who objected to X using Microsoft’s PhotoDNA software. Martell argued that PhotoDNA—which is used across the tech industry to detect and report child porn—required the collection of biometric data and that this collection violated Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA). A win for Martell could have imperiled…
Read MoreAR: A 30-year sentence for sex offender failure to register: How far over the top will this go?
Source: NARSOL.org 6/14/24 By Sandy . . . It happened in Arkansas, in Garland County, and, according to local media, the jury deliberated for 17 minutes before recommending the highest allowable sentence plus a $5,000.00 fine. Granted, this registrant does have a rather colorful history of failing to register. He has several convictions for that offense in three states, including this one and another in Arkansas. However, his criminal record reveals only one other conviction, his sexual crime conviction in 2002. Making this situation even more ludicrous, this most current…
Read MoreLA: Louisiana lawmakers approve surgical castration option for those guilty of sex crimes against kids
Source: apnews.com 6/3/24 BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Louisiana judges could order surgical castration for people convicted of sex crimes against young children under legislation approved Monday, and if Republican Gov. Jeff Landry signs it into law, the state apparently would be the first with such a punishment. The GOP-controlled Legislature passed the bill giving judges the option to sentence someone to surgical castration after the person has been convicted of certain aggravated sex crimes — including rape, incest and molestation — against a child under 13. A handful of…
Read MoreNY: This Law Effectively Banishes People from New York City (podcast)
Source: nyclu.org 6/6/24 SARA is billed as a way to protect New Yorkers from people who could harm children. But research shows these types of geographical restrictions don’t increase public safety. The NYCLU recently filed a lawsuit challenging the misleadingly-named Sexual Assault Reform Act, or SARA. SARA is a New York law that prevents certain people required to register on the state’s sex offender registry from knowingly being within 1,000 feet of a school at any time and for any reason. It’s also been interpreted to prevent people subject to…
Read MoreHere Are the States That Allow Chemical Castration as Punishment
Source: newsweek.com 6/6/24 Louisiana lawmakers passed legislation this week that allows judges to sentence child sex offenders to surgical castration. Assuming the bill is signed into law, as is expected, Louisiana will become the latest member of a growing list of states to have a castration law on the books. … Several states have laws allowing chemical castration. Alabama passed a bill in 2019, a year after Oklahoma legislators made a bid to do the same. California, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Montana, Oregon, Texas and Wisconsin also have some form of…
Read MoreWI: Washington Co. challenging placement of violent sex offender in Town of Trenton
Source: washingtoncountyinsider.com 6/8/24 The chairman in the Town of Trenton is speaking out about steps being taken to proactively protect the people in his community as Washington County officials have been notified about the possible placement of a violent sex offender. Mike Lipscomb was notified by the Washington County Sheriff prior to the news being released that Outagamie County was looking to place a violent sex offender in a group home in the Town of Trenton. Lipscomb, Sheriff Martin Schulteis and the county attorney jumped into action in an effort…
Read MoreSeventh Circuit: Heck Bars Civil Rights Challenges to Civil Commitment
Source: prisonlegalnews.org 6/1/24 On December 20, 2023, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit held that an Illinois prisoner’s challenge to civil commitment as a sexually violent person after release cannot be raised under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, unless the underlying civil commitment is first terminated in his favor or shown to be invalid “through another outlet.” The ruling extended application of the principal laid out in Heck v. Humphrey, 512 U.S. 477 (1994), that a civil rights challenge to prison disciplinary action is barred whenever a favorable…
Read MoreNationwide Action Alert: Tell the US Sentencing Commission how to create a fairer, more just sentencing system
Source: Judge Carlton W. Reeves, Chair, U.S. Sentencing Commission 6/5/24 I’m writing to ask you for a small favor. Most summers, the Sentencing Commission announces the work we plan to prioritize over the coming year. This summer, to mark the 40th anniversary of the Commission’s creation (and twenty years post Booker), we’re doing something different. We’re asking people – including you – to tell us what to do this year and in the years to come. My request is this: please take five minutes of your time to tell the…
Read MoreFederal Supervised Release Is a Wasteful Mess. A Bipartisan Bill in Congress Is Trying To Fix That.
Source: reason.com 6/4/24 When Daniel Brown was released early from federal prison in 2020, 15 years into a 42-year sentence for drug and firearm possession offenses, he was determined not to squander the chance he had been given. By most outward measures, he’s accomplished that. He’s stayed out of trouble. He’s a project manager at a construction company and married with children. But like the vast majority of people convicted of a federal offense, Brown was also sentenced to supervision following his release, 10 years of it. That means that…
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