If Juveniles can't get life for murder, how can they be lifetime sex offenders?

On Friday, the Fifth Circuit Court in Florida sent Mario Bellamy back to the trial court to be re sentenced. The appellate court, relying on a Florida Supreme Court decision, reversed and remanded Mr. Bellamy back for re-sentencing, because under Florida’s sentencing scheme a juvenile cannot be given a life sentence. Bellamy was charged with murdering someone when he was

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Without You We Would Not be Reading This

Today is October 1, 2016. A day we will forever celebrate. There are many significant dates every year where we recognize important events. We celebrate our birthdays, anniversaries, civil and religious holidays. We commemorate historic events, both good and bad, such as independence day and 9/11. We also recognize dates that are particularly meaningful because they redirected our lives. Today,

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FAC Petitions Governor Scott to "Clean Up the Registry"

PRESS RELEASE FROM THE FLORIDA ACTION COMMITTEE (FAC) For Immediate Release September 30, 2016 Contact: Gail Colletta 561-305-4959   LAKE MONROE, FLORIDA – September 30, 2016 The Florida Action Committee (FAC) sent a petition to Florida Governor Rick Scott today, asking him to clean up the registry. The Florida’s Sex Offender Registry contains over sixty-nine thousand names! Most of the

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A deal is a deal in Pennsylvania

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled this week that sex offender registration requirements can’t be increased for people who entered into plea agreements before subsequent versions of the registry schemes were passed. The opinion, which can be found here essentially says that the three plaintiffs who all plead guilty before the enactment of the State’s more stringent SORNA (in 2012) could

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Washington Post: New endorsement of the right to anonymous speech in Florida

Federal district judge Robert Hinkle (Northern District of Florida) has entered a preliminary injunction against enforcement of Florida’s impending requirement that all registered sex offenders in the state reveal to law enforcement all of their “Internet identifiers” before using them for Internet communication.  The Florida statute defined “Internet identifiers” this way: “ ‘Internet identifier’ ” includes, but is not limited to, all website uniform resource

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