CA: Federal lawsuit challenges Simi Valley Halloween sex offender law for second time
For the second time in five years, a federal lawsuit is challenging the constitutionality of a Simi Valley law that bars registered sex offenders listed on the Megan's Law website from opening their doors to trick-or-treating children on Halloween. The law, enacted by...
read moreCA: Gov. Brown supports bill sent to him that would end lifetime listing of many sex offenders on public registry
After an emotional debate, state lawmakers on Saturday gave final legislative approval to a controversial bill that would end the lifetime listing of many convicted sex offenders on a public registry in California. The bill, which was shelved then revived, was sent to...
read moreShawna: A Life on the Sex Offender Registry
The following was posted on the Marshall Project and written by David Feige: met Shawna a year into filming “Untouchable,” a documentary that examines sex offender laws through the lives of individuals on the sex offender registry. It was at an Oklahoma treatment...
read moreWill the Supreme Court Abdicate Constitutional Oversight for Sex Offender Civil Commitment Schemes?
The panoply of laws that govern the lives of individuals convicted of sex crimes after they have served their sentences is overwhelming. As this web of civil regulation has “grown into a byzantine code governing in minute details” how these people must live...
read moreWashington Supreme Court: Child porn laws apply even if perp, victim are the same.
The Washington Supreme Court has upheld the conviction under state child porn laws of a 17-year-old boy who sent a picture of his own erect penis to a 22-year-old woman. The case illustrates a bizarre situation in which Eric Gray is both the perpetrator and the victim...
read more36 Percent Uptick in Texas Teacher-Student Sex Cases over Last Year, Data Show
The following story, that ran in Breitbart News, makes you wonder why there's a buffer around schools for registrants, when it's not them committing the sexual assaults... it's the teachers. For the ninth consecutive year, the number of Texas teachers accused of...
read moreClaims of “frightening and high” recidivism rates, endorsed by the Supreme Court, have no basis in fact.
A New York Times "op-doc" posted this week zeroes in on a persistent myth that has helped inspire and sustain harsh policies aimed at sex offenders: the idea that their recidivism rate is "frightening and high," as Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy put it...
read moreColorado to appeal ruling against sex offender registry
DENVER — Colorado has decided to appeal a federal judge’s ruling that the state violated the constitutional rights of three men by requiring them to register as sex offenders, the state’s attorney general said Wednesday. Cynthia Coffman said she’ll appeal in coming...
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