Remember the Inquisition where you could either deny your guilt and get burned at the stake, or confess and get burned at the stake? The idea was that since confessing saves you from eternal damnation, the Inquisition was simply a strict and intensive rehabilitation program, enforcing “acceptance of responsibility” for the offender’s own good. Full Article Related IN: 7th Circuit rules DOC sex offender program violates Constitution
Read MoreCategory: National
AZ: Sex registry bill defeated as senators protest failure to expand rights for sex abuse victims
[azmirror.com – 5/7/19] Lawmakers argued passionately and the Senate president turned off a fellow Republican’s microphone as senators killed a bill expanding the number of people who are eligible to be removed from Arizona’s sex offender registry to protest the blocking of an unrelated bill that would give victims of child sex abuse more time to sue in civil court. House Bill 2613, sponsored by Speaker Rusty Bowers, passed 56-4 in the House of Representatives. But it failed 11-18 in the Senate on Tuesday after Sen. Paul Boyer, R-Phoenix, led…
Read MoreFL: Approves Database to Publish Details of People Who Pay for Sex
The Florida legislature passed legislation within the past week, Senate Bill 540 and House Bill 851, to establish a public database that tracks people convicted of, or who have pleaded guilty to, soliciting paid sex. While the legislation’s bipartisan authors consider it to be a step toward ending human trafficking, critics call it a means to publicly shame clients and others associated with people who do consensual sex work. The Soliciting for Prostitution Public Database will include anyone convicted of or pleading guilty to “soliciting, inducing, enticing, or procuring another…
Read MoreID: Sex offenders ask court to revive Idaho registry lawsuit
[washingtontimes.com – 5/6/19] A group of 134 sex offenders have asked the 9th U.S. Circuit Court to revive their lawsuit against the state of Idaho because they say they were denied their constitutional rights when they were forced to register as sex offenders. The group, referred to only as John Does 1 through 134 in the lawsuit, notified U.S. District Judge David Nye on Sunday that they would ask the appellate panel to review Nye’s ruling dismissing the lawsuit. The group originally filed the lawsuit in 2016, contending that Idaho…
Read MoreNY: Animal-abuser registry plan advances in Oneida County
[romesentinel.com – 5/3/19] A plan to start a registry of convicted animal abusers in Oneida County advanced through a legislative committee this week but not without questions. The Board of Legislators’ Health and Human Services Committee passed the proposal on to the full board Wednesday. The measure would establish an website similar to that of sex offenders, with offender’s names, residence, birth dates, photo and a description of the offense and the sentence. Animal shelters and pet sellers would be able to check it to help reduce the chances of…
Read MoreNC: Child exploitation operations net 82 arrests in eight states
[cnn.com- 5/3/19] Authorities in eight states arrested 82 people in operations this week that also rescued or identified 17 children thought to be victims of exploitation, officials announced Friday. “This three-day operation provides a snapshot of the work that the (Internet Crimes Against Children) Task Force is doing round the clock, seven days per week. Predators are real, and they walk among us,” Alan K. Flora, commander of the North Carolina task force, said. An ex-school bus driver pleaded guilty to raping a 14-year-old girl. He got probation. The…
Read MoreNY: Child porn convict living across from school, locked up in Ohio
[whec.com – 5/1/19] News10NBC is tracking the case of ________. We are trying to learn why a man who is a registered sex offender after a child porn conviction, was allowed to live across the street from an elementary school. ________ was in federal court in downtown Rochester Wednesday morning. It was a brief hearing to discuss his most recent arrest. We learned ________ is housed in a federal prison in Ohio where inmates with health issues are kept. ________’s attorney had no comment. The U.S. Attorney’s Office declined to…
Read MoreKS: Bill outlaws lowering sentences for some sex offenders in Kansas
[kshb.com – 5/1/19] Kansas lawmakers passed a bill Wednesday that would prevent judges from reducing sentences for adult sex offenders because a child victim was the “aggressor.” Events that unfolded in a Leavenworth County courtroom in December inspired the change after 67-year-old Raymond Soden , who was charged with soliciting teen girls online for sex, received a reduced sentence. Despite a standard sentence for such crimes of 14 years, Judge Michael Gibbins sentenced Soden to fewer than six years, saying the 13- and 14-year-old victims were “aggressors” in the case.…
Read MoreFL: Housing elderly sex offenders
Since 82-year-old ____ ____ hit his head in a fall eight months ago, he can’t remember to take his medicine. His ex-wife, ____, calls him 11 times a day to remind him about his appointments. At that stage of dementia, many families would consider admitting him to a nursing home, but ____ said she has a list of assisted living homes that have rejected ____. The pages lined up are as tall as ____’s grandson – whom ____ has never seen. Full Article
Read MoreWI, IL: Wisconsin, Illinois sued over transgender name-change laws
[washingtonpost.com – 5/1/19] Attorneys sued Wisconsin and Illinois Wednesday over laws that forbid transgender individuals from changing their names if they have certain criminal convictions. Both federal lawsuits argue that the states are violating free speech rights and are preventing people from expressing how they identify themselves. “The impact on their lives is severe. This is an issue of equality and equal participation in society,” said Lark Mulligan, an attorney who filed the Illinois lawsuit. Mulligan, who is a transgender woman, noted “all the times that people are forced to…
Read MoreVA: A look at why Gov. Northam vetoed a bill related to sex offenders in emergency shelters
[wjla.com – 4/30/19] Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam has vetoed legislation that would allow officials to temporarily block convicted sex offenders from using emergency shelters. Northam said Tuesday it is “unconscionable” that people could be turned away from shelters during hurricanes, flash floods or other emergencies. The legislation would have allowed shelter officials to deny entrance for convicted sex offenders for however long was “necessary to ensure the safety of other individuals” admitted to the shelter. The legislation would have also required convicted sex offenders to declare they are registered offenders…
Read MoreME: Maine Senate backs bill to extend statute of limitations on sex crimes
[timesrecord.com – 5/1/19] The Maine Senate on Tuesday approved a bill that would extend the state’s statute of limitations on sexual assaults from eight years to 20 years. The measure, if approved by the House and signed by Gov. Janet Mills, would put Maine more in line with other states’ sex crimes statutes. The Senate passed the bill without debate. “Only three other states have shorter statutes of limitations than Maine,” Sen. Erin Herbig, D-Belfast, the bill’s sponsor, said during a public hearing on the bill in April. “Several states…
Read MoreNY: Petitioners seek to remove judge who gave bus driver probation for rape of 14-year-old
[wmbfnews.com – 5/1/19] A New York judge is facing outrage for ruling a former school bus driver did not have to go to jail after pleading guilty to raping a 14-year-old girl. More than 45,000 people signed an online petition by Wednesday morning, calling for Judge James P. McClusky to be removed. He sentenced _______ to 10 years of probation, and _______ will have to register as a Level 1 sex offender. New York state law does not place Level 1 offenders on any online sex offender databases. Prosecutors and…
Read MoreAbolish the sex offender registry
[thenorthernlight.org – 4/29/19] It’s not easy to come to the defense of nonviolent sex offenders. Any lawmaker that considers reforming the excessively-punitive registry will start out on the losing side of the public’s perception. For starters, there is an erroneous assumption that the registry entirely comprises of rapists and pedophiles. On top of that, sex offender registration has become somewhat of a throwaway issue. Who cares about anyone on the registry? They did something, and that’s their punishment. However, our inability to think critically about sex offender registration is causing…
Read MoreIN: 7th Circuit rules DOC sex offender program violates Constitution
[theindianalawyer.com – 4/26/19] Finding the disclosures provide information that any law enforcement agent “would love to have,” the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled Indiana’s requirement that sex offender inmates give detailed accounts of their past actions violates the Constitution’s protections against self-incrimination. Donald Lacy, a sex offender inmate in the Indiana Department of Correction, filed a class action on behalf of all inmates who lost good-time credits and a demotion in credit class because they failed to meet the requirements of the Indiana Sex Offender Management and Monitoring…
Read MoreFL: Do Central Florida theme parks screen for sex offenders?
[wesh.com – 4/25/19] Could sex offenders be sitting next to your child on a ride, or standing in line behind them at Walt Disney World or Universal Orlando? In February, a registered sex offender was arrested after Orange County deputies said he exposed himself to a child at Aquatica. The accused, 52-year-old Gerald Youmans, was convicted in 2004 of exposing himself to a child in Palm Beach. He was designated a sexual predator, but according to an arrest affidavit, he held an annual pass to the theme park. The incident…
Read MoreMI: ACLU pushes for removal of sex offender registry
[abc57.com – 4/25/19] Could the sex offender registry soon be a thing of the past? The American Civil Liberties Union wants to possibly get rid of it, saying the registry doesn’t work. Right now, there are two cases out of Michigan, including a class action lawsuit, claiming several parts of the registry are unconstitutional. “In August 2016, the federal court of appeals held that Michigan’s registry is unconstitutional.” Attorney for the ACLU in Michigan, Miriam Aukerman, said. Aukerman represents hundreds of convicted sex offenders fighting the public registry and some…
Read MoreThe Feds Are Dropping Child Porn Cases Instead of Revealing Info on Their Surveillance Systems
[reason.com – 4/24/19] The Department of Justice has been dismissing child pornography cases in order to not reveal information about the software programs used as the basis for the charges. An array of cases suggest serious problems with the tech tools used by federal authorities. But the private entities who developed these tools won’t submit them for independent inspection or hand over hardly any information about how they work, their error rates, or other critical information. As a result, potentially innocent people are being smeared as pedophiles and prosecuted as…
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