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A sex offender ordinance adopted by the City of Orange is the subject of a lawsuit filed today in federal district court.  The lawsuit was filed after the City Council of Orange considered, but failed, to repeal its ordinance on June 10. The City of Orange’s ordinance is broad and includes restrictions regarding where more than 105,000 individuals can be present.  Specifically, the ordinance prohibits registered citizens...

Judges often refer to a plea deal as subject to the rules of contract law. However, when judges make that statement, they usually backtrack and realize how poorly contract law operates in the criminal domain. The role of the judge as a third party to the deal as well as a lack of normal consideration are particularly difficult to square with typical contract rules. The ongoing...

For a number of years, sex offenders consistently lost in state and federal courts when challenging various sex offender registration requirements and other restrictions on various grounds.  In recent years, however, it seems at least a few registered sex offenders are having at least a little success with court challenges to new sex offender registration requirements that seem especially punitive or onerous.  But a...

On behalf of our 4,000-plus members, the Dakota Reform Sex Offender Laws Family Solutions is asking South Dakota Senate candidates to make this issue a campaign priority. Our mission — promote medical research, legislation and education to provide an empirically based, rational approach to dealing with sexually related offenses and stop the cycle of abuse to protect all children. Full Opinion Piece

YOUR ARTICLE “Case shows difficulty of tracking sex offenders” (Metro, June 7) illustrates the folly of our current approach to this highly charged subject. High-risk sex offenders have a compulsive illness that can’t be cured, but it can be managed. As your story indicates, at least one sex offender, desperate not to give in to his compulsion, would call the police for help when...

The Supreme Judicial Court today ruled that lifetime parole for sex offenders violates the state’s constitution, The Boston Globe reports. In a 6-1 decision where Justice Robert Cordy was the dissenter on some issues, the state's highest court said judges alone have the power to sentence people. The state law that created "community parole supervision for life" for sex offenders unconstitutionally gives the Parole Board that...

Letter to the Editor - This is in response to the uproar of a registered sex offender living in Allouez: I would rather know if a convicted drug dealer, wife beater or, for that matter, a person convicted of having DUIs lived next to me. They are not monitored such as a registered sex offender and therefore are not under as much scrutiny as the...

TRENTON - Sex offenders will now face tougher prison sentences thanks to a bill signed into law by Gov. Chris Christie Monday. The Jessica Lunsford Act, named after a 13-year-old who was raped and murdered in 2005, means anyone who is convicted of abusing a child younger than 13 will go to prison for 25 years without parole. Full Article

____ ____,  ____ ____ and ____ ____ were headed toward bright futures at prestigious colleges and universities when each got involved in one-night sexual encounters. All three young men claimed the encounters were consensual — but the women asserted otherwise. In each case, campus officials found the men responsible for sexual assault and expelled or suspended them. But all three are pushing back, suing...

PORT ORANGE — Registered sex offender ____ ____ ____ lives 2,112 feet from Spruce Creek Elementary School. He and other offenders who have served their sentences have been the targets in recent months of politicians including the Port Orange City Council who have enacted new regulations in the name of safety. Port Orange expanded its requirement for sex offenders to live further than 2,500 feet...