The Inescapable Shadow of the Sex Offender Registry: A Systematic Injustice

By Dwayne Daughtry (Raleigh, NC) First published at NCRSOL (North Carolinians for Rational Sexual Offense Laws) Imagine being judged for a crime you’ve already atoned for, condemned to a life where your freedom is a mirage. This is the reality for many former sex offenders who, even after being successfully removed from one state’s registry, find themselves ensnared in a Kafkaesque web

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The Endless Punishment of U.S. Sex Offenders

By Chelsea L. Arnold Arnold states that “sex offender registration and civil commitment laws speak to the need for a complete overhaul of the U.S. Criminal justice system.”  The U.S. desires punishment over rehabilitation.  “…until the tough-on-crime turn starting in the mid 1970’s, rehabilitation was a key part of the U.S. penal system.” Arnold is with Seattle University’s Department of

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 Federal Appeals Court upholds NC sex offender registration law

“The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld North Carolina’s sex offender registration law.”  (The Carolina Journal, “Federal Appeals Court upholds NC sex offender registration law,” August 9, 2024) “Two nonprofit groups had challenged the law in federal court as violating offenders’ constitutional right against ex post facto punishment.” “A unanimous three-judge appellate panel agreed with a trial court

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A Voice, If You Can Keep It

By Guy Padraic Hamilton-Smith August 14, 2024   In bringing a First Amendment lawsuit challenging Kentucky’s newly-passed law prohibiting anonymous speech on social media platforms by some people with past sex-related convictions, I anticipated that the media would likely want to focus on my own story, and my own past.  I’ve written before about my own arrest in 2006, and my

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