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…
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NY: Supreme Court rules for NRA in New York government coercion battle
Source: nbcnews.com 5/30/24 [ACSOL is posting this as it could relate to eventually making the registry non-public] WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the National Rifle Association can pursue a claim that a New York state official’s efforts to encourage companies to end ties with the gun rights group constituted unlawful coercion. The justices unanimously found that the NRA can move forward with arguments that its free speech rights under the Constitution’s First Amendment were violated by the actions of Maria Vullo, then the superintendent of the New York state Department…
Read MoreNY: RAA Applauds NYCLU & Plantiffs for Lawsuit Challenging Banishment Law
Source: restorativeactionalliance.org 5/29/24 Restorative Action Alliance (RAA) applauds the brave plaintiffs and legal professionals of the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) who have recently brought a class action lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of New York Executive Law § 259-c (14), known as “SARA.” This banishment law affects thousands of individuals with certain sex offense convictions preventing them from being in proximity to restaurants, stores, parking lots and other spaces that are within 1,000 feet of a school. The Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (“DOCCS”) also applies SARA to prohibit…
Read MoreNY: Concerned Watertown mom wants increased residency restrictions
Source: thedailynewsonline.com 4/19/24 WATERTOWN — A mother of a 4-year-old boy had no idea that a registered sex offender who was convicted of sexually abusing three children was living next to her and across the street from a home day care business. The young mother, Sierra Penrose, is now working on reviving a state Senate bill that would prohibit sex offenders from living near such daycares. The bill, which was first proposed a decade ago, hasn’t gained traction, even though it’s been reintroduced several times. The proposed legislation would…
Read MoreNY: Poverty and Mass Incarceration in New York: An Agenda for Change
Source: brennancenter.org 2/23/21 SUMMARY: Criminal justice reform can save New York State money and reduce the racial wealth gap. The past year has been a reckoning. As a nation, we were finally forced to confront the reality and interconnectedness of racism, inequality, and injustice, which have permeated our institutions and systems for centuries. When the protests that began in Minneapolis made their way to New York, we marched not just for George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Eric Garner, or Freddie Gray but for all the lives that have been stolen and devalued…
Read MoreNY: Convicted sex offender suing SLC, state over registry
Source: wwnytv.com 12/19/23 CANTON, New York (WWNY) – New York state’s sex offender registry is being challenged in court by a former Boy Scout leader. Because that man was convicted in St. Lawrence County, the county finds itself a defendant in a case that could have serious ramifications. Former Boy Scout assistant scoutmaster Michael Kelsey is suing New York state and St. Lawrence County, saying the state’s sex offender registry violates his rights. “He’s challenging the constitutionality of the Sex Offenders Registry Act itself, indicating that the act as constructed…
Read MoreNY: The Adult Survivors Act launched over 2,500 sex abuse suits. Now, it’s expiring
Source: apnews.com 11/20/23 ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — For a year, a special New York law has cleared the way for a wave of headline-grabbing lawsuits against famous men accused of sexual misconduct, including former President Donald Trump, hip hop mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs and the comedian and actor Russell Brand. But when the Adult Survivors Act expires after Thanksgiving, it also will have led to a multitude of legal claims by women who say they were sexually abused while serving time in the New York’s prisons and jails. More than…
Read MoreNY: Opinion: The case for fixing probation and parole
Source: cityandstateny.com 9/22/23 On Sept. 17, 2021, when I was running the notorious Rikers Island jails, Gov. Kathy Hochul signed the Less Is More act into law, reducing parole revocations for non-criminal, technical violations. When she did so, she applied the act retroactively to all people incarcerated for 30 days or more for parole violations like drug use, missed appointments and curfew violations. Unfortunately, Isaabdul Karim had only been incarcerated for 29 days, missing his release opportunity by a single day. Two days later, Mr. Karim died of COVID-19 in…
Read MoreNY: They Were Supposed to Be Free. Why Are They Locked Up?
Source: thenation.com 10/14/23 No one wants a person convicted of a sex offense in their neighborhood. So New York keeps them in prison long past their release dates. Jory Smith was supposed to be free. His sentence had been up for five days on August 28, 2020, when officers at Marcy Correctional Facility, a medium-security prison in upstate New York where Smith had spent almost five years, summoned him to a conference room. But instead of releasing him, they said they were taking him to another prison. Confused, Smith asked…
Read MoreNY: Court of Appeals orders new risk level classification hearing for registered sex offender
Source: nydailyrecord.com 6/23/23 New York state’s highest court has ordered a new hearing to determine the risk level classification for a registered sex offender. The Court of Appeals ruled that the Sex Offender Registry Act (SORA) court deprived defendant Michael Worley of due process rights by changing his risk level assessment without giving him an opportunity to contest the determination. … At the SORA hearing, the prosecutor acknowledged that Worley was incorrectly penalized for refusing to attend sex offender treatment. In fact, he was never able to attend because his…
Read MoreNY: Friends Urging Convicted Sex Offender Anthony Weiner to Run for NYC Mayor
Source: headtopics.com 5/1/23 Friends of former Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY), a convicted sex offender, are urging him to run for political office again. sex offender, are urging him to run for political office again — making a comeback by pitching himself as a moderate Democrat to rebuild New York City. Curtis Sliwa, the former GOP mayoral candidate for New York City, said he and others are encouraging Weiner to run for office again. “He has been encouraged to run for office by me and others,” Sliwa said on his 77…
Read MoreNY: Putnam man acquitted of raping, murdering 12-year-old girl after two decades in prison
Source: nypost.com 2/28/23 A Putnam County man convicted more than 20 years ago for the rape and murder of a 12-year-old girl was vindicated Monday when jurors acquitted him during his second trial tied to the grisly case. Carmel man Andrew Krivak was found not guilty of the awful attack after spending more than two decades behind bars, and more than six years after his co-defendant and friend, Anthony DiPippo, was acquitted of the same crime. Krivak and DiPippo were accused of raping and killing Carmel teen Josette Wright in…
Read MoreNY: New York to pay Anthony Broadwater $5.5M for wrongful conviction in rape of Alice Sebold
Source: syracuse.com 2/14/23 Syracuse, NY – New York State has agreed to pay $5.5 million to Syracuse resident Anthony Broadwater for his wrongful conviction in the 1981 rape of Alice Sebold, who later turned her account of the attack into the best-selling memoir “Lucky.” Broadwater, now 62, spent 16 ½ years in state prison and more than two decades longer on the sex offender registry for a conviction based on a botched police lineup as well as since-debunked science. He was a young Black man who returned to Syracuse from…
Read MoreNY: Unhoused NY sex offenders can’t be convicted for having no address
Source: courthousenews.com 2/3/23 MANHATTAN — A New York appeals court overturned an unhoused man’s conviction for failing to verify his address every 90 days as requested by the state’s Sex Offender Registration Act. The law is unconstitutional when applied to homeless defendants who lack an address, as it deprives them of due process. Read the full article and the text of the ruling
Read MoreNY: New York forces gay man to register as sex offender
Source: darik.news 1/26/23 A gay man with HIV is appealing a court decision requiring him to register as a “sex offender” in order to prosecute under a 1987 Louisiana law that effectively criminalizes anyone with HIV One who has sex. In 2009, Robert Suttle, a gay black man who was working as an assistant court clerk, was accused by a former lover of not disclosing his HIV status before consensual sex. As a result, Suttle found himself charged under Louisiana’s “intentional exposure to the AIDS virus” law—adopted at the height…
Read MoreNY: New US rape lawsuit filed against boxer Mike Tyson
Source: news.yahoo.com 1/24/23 A woman in New York state has filed a civil suit against Mike Tyson, accusing the former boxing champion of raping her in a limousine in the early 1990s, according to court filings. The woman, who asked the court to remain anonymous, filed her complaint in early January under a temporary New York state law allowing victims of sexual assault to seek civil damages regardless of the statute of limitations. Tyson spent three years in jail beginning in 1992 after being found guilty of raping model Desiree…
Read MoreNY: Hundreds of New York Women Are About to Sue Alleged Rapists (and Enablers) Under a Revolutionary New Law
Source: motherjones.com 11/23/22 For years, former president Donald Trump has been able to push off a lawsuit filed against him by E. Jean Carroll, a writer and advice columnist who says he raped her in a department store dressing room in the mid-1990s. When Carroll decided to come forward—describing the alleged assault in a book excerpt in 2019—Trump had been president for two years, and the statute of limitations to bring criminal charges or a lawsuit against him had long since passed. Carroll sued Trump for defamation instead, arguing that he’d smeared her in…
Read MoreNY: Review: Downstate Offers Sympathy for Sex Offenders and Scrutiny for Victims
Source: theatermania.com 11/15/22 “Victims don’t lie,” a character confidently claims in Downstate, the provocative new drama by Bruce Norris, now making its New York debut at Playwrights Horizons. And in saying this, he is only regurgitating a bit of dogma that has been repeatedly affirmed by the dominant culture — particularly since the #MeToo movement of 2017. If you’re like me, you hear such sentiments and a little voice in your brain whispers, bullshit. In Downstate, that voice belongs to Dee (K. Todd Freeman, giving one of the most exhilarating…
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