When the Georgia Supreme Court declared unconstitutional a law allowing convicted sex offenders to be ordered to wear GPS ankle monitors for the rest of their lives after release from prison, several justices offered a concurring opinion saying the Legislature could write a law requiring such monitoring that would pass constitutional muster.
New legislation dropped on the first day of the General Assembly aims to do just that.
House Bill 720 stipulates that a judge may order probation for life and that it may include electronic monitoring.
The bill notes that it is intended to “provide a response to Park v. State,” the March 2019 opinion deeming statutory lifetime monitoring after an offender has served his court-ordered sentence constituted a “lifelong search” in violation of the Fourth Amendment.
Yes, ladies and gents, attorneys look at this and start to salivate on the case which is forming in the hands of the legislators currently…..
And so starts the possible march (if passed and signed into law) to SCOTUS and a ruling on the entire topic, i.e. agree to hear it or not and if they do, will it be allowed or not?, if challenged.
IMO, if you cannot attach a GPS to a car, US v Jones (2012), SCOTUS, without a warrant since it is considered a search, the human is in the same vein for movement tracking via a search without a warrant. Same is said for cellphone signals, Carpenter v US (2018), SCOTUS, and tracking of movement. There was a time when humans would walk everywhere, so my analogy is all movement regardless of method, e.g. car, horse, bicycle, scooter, boat, skateboard, rollerskates, etc, cannot be electronically tracked by any method without a warrant.
Again, this comes down to using the data for what purpose and why does a human differ than a machine, i.e. a GPS tracker on a car or a cellphone with GPS on?
One step forward, 300 steps back. Just when we think we are gaining ground, another court loses their minds. Are they all on drugs? Do they draw straws and throw darts at bills and whichever law the dart lands on, that is what they pass?
Maybe it will take a supreme court justice’s grand kids to get put on the registry for something to change. However they would probably just pull some strings and get them out of the trouble.
This draconian bill, put forth by a publican, would also shift the burden of proof to the “sex offender.” The “sex offender” must prove to
“the board” that he/she will not commit another sexually related crime. Yet another case where just one class of felon has to prove their innocence, thus alleviating the state of proving them guilty. If no “evidence” is put forth on your behalf, you are designated a threat. Thomas D. Rice, aka Jim Crow, must be smiling in his grave right now.
Scratch Georgia off my places to move to.
similar to what I had to do having the burden of proof
in a Visa case < i have to prove to USCIS (immigration) that i Pose no risk beyond a reasonable doubt
there is no psychologist going to say this person poses no risk beyond a reasonable doubt to anyone everyone poses a risk a paraplegic can spit on another person, that is a risk
though I got a 2.5% to ever pose a risk to anyone and a 1 on stat 99
this visa will still be denied this is another form of punishment to a RP or a person off the reg.or a person who was never in the eyes of the law but had an old sex crime
now my case was adj withhold ,USCIS still considers it a conviction they actually wanted me to have my friend write letters of good conduct stating
we know he was convicted of a sex crime ( a lie its self)
yet all threw out this letters that had to keep saying he was convicted was convicted our government dont give a FK whom they hurt or how they do it,
many if my friends refused to write such letters claiming i was a convicted sex offender, they wrote letters alright yes they were very good letters but alot was telling the government how shameful to treat a person after he has finished his time they were good letters yet I didn’t submit them to the attorney A. L.
I know hes a great attorney but its time he put his staff in check as well, sent several emails and none have been answered a ball was dropped and now i cant contact him his internal people monitor his emails
Yes no matter what Rps will never have justice on or off the reg.
Georgia is a kind of a good news/bad news jurisdiction. You can get off of the registry there and, last time that I checked, you don’t have to report all of your internet identifiers to the police. Also, most of the restrictions placed on offenders relying to where they can live, work, etc are considered punishment in Georgia and as such, cannot be applied ex post facto. The bad news is that if you are convicted AFTER the period between like 2006 and 2009, the laws are among the most draconian in the country. I am trying to move there because if the the one state where I can apply to be removed from the registry that treats out of staters ht3 same as in staters AND I could afford to move there. Indiana MIGht end up being another one after the most recent court decisions. Most of the other states where you might have a chance like Vermont, Colorado, Washington and Oregon just cost too much.
@JoeM,
I tried to make sense of all their statutes regarding registration, but came up unsure if you move there, how would a Floriduh conviction be equated, and when the tolling period to petition removal from the registry starts, date of conviction or date of arrival in Georgia. No matter how you slice it, anyone moving there from Floriduh will be on their registry for life (and beyond).
You can scratch Washington off the list too, unless you are very young. Out-of-staters are required to remain registered for life, unless you can live crime free in Washington for 15 consecutive years, then you can petition to get off.
“(c) If the person is required to register for a federal, tribal, or out-of-state conviction, when the person has spent fifteen consecutive years in the community without being convicted of a disqualifying offense during that time period.”
https://app.leg.wa.gov/RCW/default.aspx?cite=9A.44.142
is it in “the community” or in Washington? Generally, “in the community” means out of custody.
You might want to confirm this.
Good point! Also, the 15 year tolling period starts upon release from incarceration, not probation/parole.
Ahhh yes, legislators circumnavigating already existing laws. I smell the usual rats being in on this idea, I mean what better way to spend tax payers dollars than to line your own pockets, all while acting like you are tough on crime and in actuality really out to lock away sex offenders for life. 3 birds with one stone.
might as well 1900s be black and have chains attached to us
NO LIVE FREE OR DIE
Some Random Thoughts:
This should only affect those convicted after the date the bill becomes law. I don’t believe you can make probation retroactive.
This will also be challenged in court. Sentencing for a crime is punishment and this will be easily proven as excess punishment as they will not be able to help themselves in applying it to every SOR statute.
If they were to limit it to only those who re-offend (not including reporting violations) they would probably have an easier time getting it to stand.
The stupid part is, the State of Georgia is going to waste even more money on something that provides little to no benefit instead of using it where it might do some good. You are placing GPS tracking on a group of people who already only re-offend at very low rates. In addition, as we all know, the majority of crimes are first time offenders.
I wonder how many people on the registry would be willing to trade GPS monitoring for a Law Enforcement Eyes Only registry. What if you could make that choice, one or the other.
Isn’t it wonderful that some legislators, after swearing to defend the constitution, feel perfectly fine about trying to find a way AROUND that constitution. When you subvert the rights of any group,a constitution becomes useless.
Can’t read past paywall.
Gist appears to be, mandatory life GPS is unconstitutional, UNLESS judge had discretion in the individual’s case.
If the bill passes, defense attorneys will need to be prepared to argue why life GPS is unnecessarily.
Just where is this ever going to end. Murderers, drug dealers that are killing our children, drunk drivers, where is their monitoring. They are the real menaces to society and the repeat offenders.
Soon, everyone on probation will have a GPS! Other felons are next in line for this. Why do you think 5G is being set up? Once it is decided that YOU are the one to be found guilty, your whereabouts will be matched to locations of crimes. If any crime was committed nearby anywhere you were, then YOU must have committed the crime!
This will never happen and I tell you why. The technology of GPS tracking of humans wearing the latest monitors is full of faults and extremely costly to do. You cannot fully automate this process. You need live human surveillance. And once violations are found you need cops to find the offender. Nobody talks about how the system of GPS monitoring works and current flaws in the system. Presently it works about 40% of the time. So if a hundred thousand Sex Offenders in Georgia are wearing monitoring devices, Law Enforcement will need thousands of civilian and law enforcement officers to work surveillance outside and inside of automatic computer monitoring. To be clear its much too costly for most county and city police department’s to budget and support such a proposition and most of the time doesn’t work.
JEV True Confessions
It has already happened in Michigan for offenders who were convicted of 1st degree CSC, or whose victim was under 13. Cost is not a factor. The technology records everything, leaving authorities the opportunity to arrest you for alleged violations at any time that they choose. The fees charged to those who wear them are ridiculous. And the sad truth is that State government accounting treats the assessed fees as revenue whether those fees are paid or not.
All costs of monitoring are the responsibility of the offender, Jev. , so LE could care less of the costs involved.
The infrastructure is already in place for virtually endless amounts of GPS monitors. They are already putting them on more and more offenders, even misdemeanors, and illegal aliens are required to wear them now until their hearing.
I would also like to remind everyone that private companies are profiting greatly off this GPS scam. I’m sure that they are also pushing the phony propaganda that it keeps the public safe. Just another step in the direction of monitoring ALL citizens electronically.
This has already happened in Missouri also. However, there is NO way a T3 Registrant can ever get off of it. The one they use here is NOT water proof. You can’t go swimming or take bathes.
Day #1 I would drive my car off a bridge and gps would be ruined.
Day # 2, They chew me out and replace the unit. On the way home, I accidentally trip and fall into the community pool.
Day #3, I am threatened with jail if I ruin another gps. After getting a replacement, a pipe burst and ……. well you get the picture.
@ JEV: No, It will not be too expensive …. because they will require the offenders (as part of their lifetime probation) to pay an exorbitant monthly fee for the pleasure of being GPS-monitored. But that’s not punishment, right?? 🙄