Reforming Florida’s Sex Offender Registry Laws
Just as the 7th US Circuit Court of Appeals is considering the constitutionality of Wisconsin’s GPS monitoring for repeat offenders, a handful of lawmakers are trying to slap GPS monitors on people who are homeless, through a recently introduced piece of legislation. At least the press this bad idea is getting is introducing some common sense and fairness. Wisconsin public
Read moreA corrections officer at the Adult Diagnostic and Treatment Center (ADTC) in Avenel, NJ — a secure facility specifically designed for treating and incarcerating repetitive and compulsive sex offenders — has been charged with sexually assaulting two inmates under his supervision. The irony here is striking: this isn’t just any prison unit — it’s a specialized treatment center run by
Read moreThe Michigan Supreme Court recently issued a decision in People of Michigan v. Robert James Kardasz, a case that once again highlights how courts across the country are grappling with the constitutional limits of modern sex-offender registration laws. While the ruling directly applies only to Michigan, its reasoning has clear implications for Florida and other states that maintain expansive, lifetime
Read moreIn a case of pretty distasteful reporting, Louisiana News Station WKRC announced that a man who killed 2 men because they were on the registry was convicted. Their story, which can be read here spends one sentence announcing the conviction, but then goes right into the past crimes of the victims. Why shame the victims? If you have a moment,
Read moreThe Supreme Judicial Court considered whether the duration of GPS monitoring imposed as a condition of probation under G. L. c. 265, § 47 is constitutionally permissible under art. 14 of the Massachusetts Declaration of Rights. Section 47 mandates that defendants convicted of certain sex offenses “shall” be subject to GPS monitoring for the entire length of probation. However, in
Read moreA class of convicted sex offenders in Wisconsin maintained to a Seventh Circuit panel Tuesday that the state’s lifetime GPS monitoring requirement runs afoul of the Fourth Amendment. “No one denies the seriousness of sexual offending or the state’s strong interest in combating it, but the Fourth Amendment does not ask whether a search feels intuitively justified. It asks whether
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