GA: Bad bill advances through the legislature (lifetime probation and Halloween signs)
The following is an update from an advocate in Georgia. If anyone is in Georgia and would like to be connected with the advocate group there, please reach out to [email protected]
Here’s an update on Georgia HB 720 which would require Judges to issue mandatory lifetime probation sentences upon conviction of a 2nd sexual offense. It would also make it lawful for Sheriffs to put signs on registrants property on and before Halloween.
The bill passed today 98-63.
There was nearly 30 minutes of discussion both for and against. I helped my representative (Kennard) craft a great opposition speech. In the end, we just didn’t have the votes to stop this in the House.
The bill now moves on to the state Senate. My plan is to remind the Senators that this bill does not implement any of the findings that came out of their own study committee last year. I also plan to get the Department of Community Supervision to publicly oppose the bill.
If anyone would like to, you can view the livestream here (begins at 1:01:40):https://livestream.com/accounts/25225474/events/8824297/videos/202832129
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Having had to endure bureaucrats for four years while I did two tours of duty in DC, encourages me to want to get into their ‘knickers’ at every opportunity. There is nothing more beautiful than a ‘pissed-off’ /’outwitted’/’embarrassed’ bureaucrat. If they are going to make our lives miserable, then that is the least we can give back to them.
I was thinking back to my day is in law school 30+ years ago and something occurred to me regarding the Halloween signs. As many of us have discovered, the law can be somewhat nonsensical. When I was taking property and land use law classes, the professors told us that the courts have bent over backwards in the past to help the government when it comes to regulating the use of your property. There were numerous cases where the government, for environmental reasons or others, had affectively legislated away the intended use Of people’s property to the point where about all they could do was stand on it and go wow it’s really pretty here. That was not considered a “taking“ with that said, one case I distinctly remember involved a cable television company in New York in the 1970s where the city at authorized the cable company to run cable onto a bunch of apartment buildings. For some reason one owner Did not want cable on his property at all no matter what. The city argued that this was not a taking and he argued that it was. The courts determined that the city granting their franchisee the right to that 1/4 of an inch wide easement on the building was in fact a taking that had to be compensated after going through the justice system. Yes, this is a very obscure case that in most instances You would’ve never heard about. But riddle me this. If Georgia passes a law that allows may requires a sheriff to come onto your property and put a sign in it on Halloween, how would that really differ from the cable case? Is the legislature attempting a taking, I’ll be at a temporary one every year, without any provisions for due process? This may sound trivial, but in my opinion, you have to attempt to make the powers that be‘s lives as difficult as they are trying to make ours. In the case of registered sex offenders, these guys can get away with almost anything as far as the public is concerned, so you almost have to figure out what is painful to them. Repeatedly losing in court strikes me is one thing that they really don’t like
Could you folks let us know who some of these Georgia advocates are? As best as I can tell, if you were convicted before 2003, Georgia laws are much less draconian than Florida. My recollection is that they basically had their backside handed to them by their own state courts and the federal courts around 2010 and had to rewrite their laws. The most important outcomes for people convicted before 2003 was that most of the crazy ex post facto residency restrictions in the perhaps even more insane restrictions on where you could work were declared to be something resembling punishment. My recollection is that they also completely removed the Internet identifier requirements from their laws. I may be wrong but if that is the case, that alone would be a drastic improvement over Florida in that you couldPerhaps conduct some kind of a little business on the Internet using a fictitious name without being cyberstalked and shut down. Of course the bad news is there anyone convicted after 2003 and particularly after 2006 really really doesn’t want to be in Georgia. I would particularly like to find out some more information about the backlog in the level determination process. In theory anyone other than a level III/predator who has been off sanctions for at least 10 years is eligible for removal by the courts in Georgia. With that said, I have seen comments from the various and sundry lawyer websites in Georgia to say it might benefit you to also be leveled. So once again, does anyone know the names of any advocacy groups in Georgia that might be able to direct some of us to sources of information and assistance?
Looks to me like things in Georgia are better for those convicted prior to July 1, 2008. Perhaps this date would serve as a cut off for application of any other SO laws passed in Georgia as well.
https://law.justia.com/codes/georgia/2014/title-42/chapter-1/article-2/section-42-1-15/
MY GOD! The penalties for violating any of their offender ordinances are 10 times worse than what I got for an actual charge.
(g) Any individual who knowingly violates this Code section shall be guilty of a felony and shall be punished by imprisonment for not less than ten nor more than 30 years.
* This includes just walking past a school
Wake up people, they just want us ALL back behind bars because they feel we should all have been given life for any accusations.
Because they lost those cases in state and federal courts back in like 2010 and 2011 Georgia affectively has at least three and maybe four different sets of restrictions that they apply to registrants. I guess now, assuming that they continue to abide by the court decisions, if these new laws pass, they may end up with four or five different sets of restrictions to apply.
Reality and facts are not relevant to the abuse of registered American citizens. This punishment has one purpose – to serve as a visual warning to the general population of just what the government CAN and WILL do to you if they choose to.
It is has nothing to do with child or public safety and everything to do with political manipulation. Facts are not going to change this. They never have mattered and they will not matter in the future.
The USA is not run on truth or even reality – just look out your window for confirmation of this!
To Steven Sainz:
GPS for twice convicted…. twice almost zero recidivism rate is still zero. Putting GPS’s on those NOT convicted will not result in more safety.
Ga is at least 7 years behind on leveling offenders.
Under 16 cannot consent to sex but, as we all know, can be tried as an adult. Hypocrisy.
To Gregg Kennard:
Restrictions to living within anything only increase someone’s want to commit other crimes.
95+% of new sex crimes are by those KNOWN to the victim (parents, teachers, coaches, law enforcement, clergy, medical professional, etc.).
Michael Nail is not interested in preventing crime, he is interested in his and his constituents employment (DCS).
A “state wide sexual assault tracking system” already exists.
To Scott Holcomb:
A “state wide sexual assault tracking system” already exists.
If a doctor commits a crime, the victim can report it. Why would a doctor or anyone report a crime they commit?
“Victims” may autonomously report but under the constitution suspects can require to confront them.
To Robert Trammell:
Yeah, bills combined together often cause a compromise in what is right and what is wrong. Two strikes and you get a life sentence. Probation for life is ridiculous as that probation will continually entail more restrictions and eventually end in homelessness costing Georgians much more money.
To Josh McLaurin:
Thank you. One of the criminal justice reforms in Ga should be to get everyone tiered and low risk offenders off the public registry.
To Chuck Efstration:
Ga is so far behind (7 years) in classifying sex criminals… who is dangerous? I’d say, as many studies have concluded that 95+% of new sex crimes are by those KNOWN to the victim (parents, teachers, coaches, law enforcement, clergy, medical professional, etc.).
F you. Rep. Sainz is so misinformed it’s ridiculous. A second conviction not within legal statutes…. huh? A life sentence on probation equates to a life sentence in prison only without the possibility of being ass fucked or killed. If you are so smart on crime, you’d know recidivism rates. The morally right thing to do has absolutely no bearing on legality. Ever heard of the US constitution? It saves the tax payers money how? Locking them up for life? We pay for that idiot.
Again, the SORB in Ga is at least 7 years behind on leveling offenders.
The best action to factually insure public safety is not by continually and increasingly punish offenders. How is that done without violating privacy IDK.
Another bad bill is the ban on internet use just because you are on “sex offender” probation. I understand that punishment is a necessary part of keeping “law and order” within our country, but I have never understood the blanketed ban on the internet use in this day and time — 20 years ago, maybe, but not in 2020.
https://www.law.com/newyorklawjournal/2020/03/12/ny-civil-liberties-union-argues-blanket-ban-on-internet-access-for-sex-offenders-is-unconstitutional/?slreturn=20200213141210