The Alliance for Constitutional Sex Offense Laws (ACSOL) is dedicated to protecting the Constitution by restoring the civil rights of registrants and their families. In order to achieve that objective, ACSOL will educate and litigate as well as support or oppose legislation. The ACSOL website and recordings are provided as a service to registrants, registrants’ families, and others for general information only. The information on the website and in the recordings are not designed to provide legal or other advice or to create an attorney-client relationship. You should not take, or refrain from taking, action based on their content. Prior results and case studies do not guarantee a similar outcome in future representations. ACSOL accepts no responsibility for any loss or damages that may result from accessing or reliance on content on the ACSOL website and recordings and disclaim, to the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, any and all liability with respect to acts or omissions made by registrants, registrants’ families and others on the basis of content on the ACSOL website.
Important News / Announcements
General News Feed
Supreme Court won’t review decision that freed Bill Cosby from prison
Source: kcra.com 3/7/22 WASHINGTON —The Supreme Court said Monday it will not take up the sexual assault case against Bill Cosby, leaving in place a decision by Pennsylvania's highest court to throw out his conviction and set him free from prison. The high court declined prosecutors' request to hear the case and reinstate Cosby's conviction. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court last year threw out Cosby's...
MN: Group pushes to take children off Minnesota’s Predatory Offender Registry
Source: msn.com 3/5/22 MINNEAPOLIS — Patty Wetterling just wanted the person who kidnapped her son to be caught. She never imagined her pursuit would lead to the creation of a list of more than 18,000 predatory offenders in Minnesota that could include children as young as 10 years old. "It was never intended to have 10-year-olds on the sex offender registry," said Wetterling, whose...
OK: City to assess sex offender requirements for proposed shelter
Source: normantranscript.com 3/5/22 City officials have been asked to assess whether Norman’s proposed location for a homeless shelter meets state and federal requirements for sex offender lodging. ... The requested assessment follows meetings Ward 5 Rarchar Tortorello had with Le Monde school officials over concerns about the proximity of the shelter to the school, specifically in reference to sex offenders in the area, said...
CA: Contra Costa County Grants Registrant’s Petition
Source: ACSOL Contra Costa County granted yesterday a petition filed on behalf of a registrant convicted of PC 288(a) in 1986. This is the second known petition granted by Contra Costa county so far. The first petition granted in Contra Costa county took place on December 2, 2021, for a different registrant convicted of the same offense. In both cases, the District Attorney did...
ALI Council Approves Most of Model Penal Code
The Council of the American Law Institute (ALI) has approved most of the model penal code (MPC) adopted by its members. The Council's approval took place during its meeting held this week following a decision in January to delay consideration of the model penal code. The most significant portions of the MPC include: (1) significant reduction in the number of offenses that require registration,...
MS: AG Fitch Continues to Fight ALI Proposal to Weaken Laws on Sexual Assault, Human Trafficking, and Sex Offender Registration
Source: mageenews.com 3/2/22 Attorney General Lynn Fitch this week wrote The American Law Institute (ALI) to ask its members to again defer consideration of proposed revisions to Section 213 of the Model Penal Code (MPC) that would weaken the ability of States to prosecute sexual assault, abuse, and exploitation; human trafficking; and sex offender registration. “Laws against child exploitation, human trafficking, and sexual assault...
ACSOL March 19, 2022 Meeting
Please join ACSOL Executive Director and civil rights attorney Janice Bellucci as well as ACSOL President and criminal defense attorney Chance Oberstein for our next meeting. The meeting will be held on Saturday, March 19, on Zoom beginning at 10 a.m. Pacific time, 1:00 PM Eastern, and will last at least two hours. You can use the Zoom app or call in using a...
Biden’s SCOTUS nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson once argued judicial system is ‘unfair’ to sexual predators
Source: thepostmillennial.com 2/28/21 President Joe Biden's Supreme Court nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson once authored an unsigned "Note" in the Harvard Law Review arguing that America's judicial system is "unfair" to sexual predators, according to findings discovered by an American Accountability Foundation investigation. Jackson argued the unconstitutionality of certain preventative measures adopted as common practices by state governments and applied to confirmed sex offenders....
General Comments Mar 2022
Comments that are not specific to a certain post should go here, for the month of Mar 2022. Contributions should relate to the cause and goals of this organization and please, keep it courteous and civil. This section is not intended for posting links to news articles without additional relevant comment.
MS: SB2448 Blocks Medically Frail Prisoners Who Committed Sex Offenses From Being Paroled to Special Care Facilities
Source: mississippitoday.org 2/28/22 Mississippi Republicans have balked at expanding Medicaid, but are embracing legislation that would take advantage of the federal program to pay for healthcare for very sick incarcerated people... ... Sex offenders and people on death row would not be eligible. Read the full article
![SC: Bill sets parameters for South Carolina sex offenders to get off registry [create new three-tier registry]](https://www.wspa.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/53/2022/02/AP21020645077919-1.jpg?w=1280)
SC: Bill sets parameters for South Carolina sex offenders to get off registry [create new three-tier registry]
Source: wspa.com 2/25/22 COLUMBIA, S.C. (WBTW) — A proposed bill in the South Carolina Senate would set out guidelines for convicted rapists to petition a court to be removed from the sex offender registry. The bill is in response to a South Carolina Supreme Court ruling last year stating that it’s unconstitutional for the state to not have a process that would allow sex...
Sotomayor has constitutional concerns in case of sex offender who couldn’t find housing
Source: abajournal.com 2/23/22 U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor is expressing “serious constitutional concerns” in the case of a sex offender forced to spend additional time in prison because he couldn’t find housing far enough away from schools in New York City. Sotomayor raised her concerns in a Feb. 22 statement regarding the Supreme Court’s decision to deny certiorari in the case of Angel...
Sex-Offender Laws Sent a Man to Prison Over a Prayer Livestream
Source: wired.com 2/23/22 Jason wasn’t sure what to do. After an alleged sexting incident in 2012 snowballed into a felony conviction in his southern state, he was forced to register as a sex offender and barred from using a computer or smartphone. Over time, the conditions of his probation were reduced to a patchwork of technology-related restrictions: He was allowed to use email, but...
TX: Automatic license plate readers helping to deter crime and track registrants in Houston-area cities
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...
‘Staggering’ study reveals 46% of unemployed U.S. men have criminal convictions
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...
W.A.R. Room Event on Feb 22: Margaret Love of the Collateral Consequences Resource Center
Source: Women Against Registry (W.A.R.) Margaret Love is the Executive Director and Editor of the Collateral Consequences Resource Center. She is a former U.S. Pardon Attorney who, in her private practice in Washington, D.C., represents applicants for executive clemency. She is lead co-author of Collateral Consequence of Criminal Conviction: Law, Policy & Practice (NACDL/West, 3rd ed. 2018-2019) Margaret created and regularly updates the Restoration...
CA: Tiered Registry Law Presentation Focus of CASOMB Meeting
Source: ACSOL The California Sex Offender Management Board (CASOMB) today listened to a lengthy, in-depth presentation regarding the Tiered Registry Law and its implementation. The presentation was delivered by attorneys Michele Kumaus of the San Diego Public Defenders Office and Ana Santiago of the San Diego District Attorneys Office. According to the attorneys, a total of 143 petitions for removal from the registry have...
CA: Residents in ‘shock’ after convicted sex offender moves into Poway neighborhood
Source: fox5sandiego.com 2/12/22 SAN DIEGO — Residents in the Arbolito neighborhood are concerned for their children’s safety after a convicted sex offender moved into their neighborhood without any notice to the community. Convicted sex offender, Spicer ____, was sentenced to eight years in state prison in 2017 for kidnapping, contact with a minor to commit a sexual offense and unlawful possession of an assault...
Lawsuit Challenges Tiered Registry Law Provision
A lawsuit was filed this week in Sacramento Superior Court challenging the application of a tiered registry law provision that has resulted in individuals being assigned to Tier 3, the highest tier, even though their felony conviction was reduced to a misdemeanor. Specifically, the lawsuit is seeking relief for an individual convicted of a felony violation of Penal Code Section 288.2 that was later...
CA: California domestic violence advocates ask Gov. Newsom to spend more on prevention programs
Source: fresnobee.com 2/14/22 A coalition of 100-plus crisis intervention agencies is once again appealing to the California Legislature and Gov. Gavin Newsom to set aside funding in next year’s budget to pay for programming found to prevent sexual and domestic violence. Although California has a budget surplus, Newsom did not set aside money for this work in his January budget proposal, something that did...