Poll Result: Had you known that sex offender registration requirements would be expanded to where they are today, would you have taken a plea?
Last month we invited registrants to answer the question, “Had you known that sex offender registration requirements would be expanded to where they are today, would you have taken a plea?”
The results are in and 92.2% of the respondents said NO, they would NOT have plead guilty had they known that the sex offender registration requirements would have been expanded to where they are today. That left 7.8% who said they still would have taken the plea.
The Supreme Court of the United States held that a guilty plea is valid only if done voluntarily, knowingly, and intelligently, ‘with sufficient awareness of the relevant circumstances and likely consequences.’” Bradshaw v. Stumpf, 545 U.S. 175, 183 (2005).
If certain consequences, such as residency restrictions, didn’t even exist at the time we took the plea, how could we have had “sufficient awareness” of them?
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Let’s rephrase the question. Would you have taken a plea agreement had you know that the local, state and federal governments could initiate harsher punishment under the guise of civil actions, which are for life, harsher than the law allows for said criminal prosecution, and initialially giving up all of you Constitutional Rights to seek relief???
I concur. If we knew then what we know now, I do believe at least 75% or higher would have somehow come up with the money to go to trial knowing we were headed for basically a life sentence of heartache and hardships.
When I first was on probation, it was pretty easy to get a job, even with a sex crime (I was even a manager of a large corporate store)
Once the registries got worse and worse, I couldn’t even find a job cleaning the rear ends of horses in a stable, or picking the noses of Irish fishermen on the docks for a few pennies.
No I would not have. I also was tricked into CRD rules that were not given to me until the day I was being released. Cities and Counties are increasingly adding restrictions that is harder and harder to be able to live any kind of a normal life. I have a business that houses Sex Offenders in Orange County and see the hardship that the newly released offenders are facing.
Hey Ron, there is a guy who use to live in your park that was very sick. Me and a few others were helping him on occasion and then he just disappeared. We think he may have died due to his health issues.
Just for some closure, can you verify if he died? His name was Bert Real. He is no longer on the registry. Not asking for any other information just if he passed away as it would give a few people some closure knowing he is not in pain any more.
If not I understand. I think the only other family he had was an elderly mother.
No way!
(BTW, I’ve been trying to join for the last few weeks but your site won’t take my info and money. You have my email address. Can you contact me to help get this done. I want to put my money where my mouth is.)
Absolutely! This is the type of comment we like to get!
Unfortunately the courts don’t really care about us. They certainly aren’t interested in what’s fair or right or even decent. If the courts where comprised of decent human beings and not politically motivated persons, we might have a chance at fairness. However, as of late, I don’t see that. I hope I’m wrong. I’d like nothing better then to be wrong. Guess we’ll just have to wait and see.
I have to say that for many judges that is the case and is the reason why in Florida especially, we seem to be having a hard time getting our “day in court.” But the good news is we are on the right side of the law* and they can’t ignore us forever and because of those two things what we need to happen WILL happen. Therefore the only question is WHEN, not if.
*One of the foundational pillars of the American Justice System is the ex post facto clause which states that you cannot continue to PUNISH people AFTER the fact, ie after a case which has been adjudicated, sentenced and closed. Since the sex offender scheme though hiding in the civil regulatory code is so obviously punishment to any rational human being – it’s all about the time it is taking to get a judge that matters to rule the obvious. Our ultimate goal is for the US Supreme Court to rule the Sex Offender Laws in the United States as punishment – but they have to agree to hear the right damn case first and because they’ve already heard and judged the Smith vs. Doe case in 2002 in which they’ve already answered that exact question, it’s taking some time to position ourselves and the Court to hear the same issue again.
It’s as if we asked the court in Roe v. Wade “is abortion legal” and the Supreme Court said ‘Yes.” Then, 10 years later another case comes to the court and says, hey Court is abortion legal? And the Court says, we already said yes so we’re not even going to hear your new case. That’s exactly what is happening with our issue. it’s also why many of us have learned to despise the Smith v. Doe case with a hot passion. It was simply too weak and too soon to bring such a case to the Supreme Court. Even then there were other states besides Alaska whose laws were much harsher and law experts everywhere were predicting laws to become worse not better. They should have waited and they didn’t and it messed things up for all of us. It’s always we FAC warns people not to bring frivolous cases, weak cases or cases with lawyers who don’t know what they ‘re doing. It can have a hugely negative impact on all of us should the case not go our way and this has happened many times including Smith v Doe.
THE GOOD news is, IF they agree to hear it again, SO much has been added to the registry requirements since that last hearing that , that in and of itself should be enough to make it a “Different” case.
If I say “Hey Jimmy can you mow my front yard for $20″ then later say ” Oh you were supposed to mow the back also and will not pay you the $20 until you do that too” is changing the rules and it dishonest. That is basically what happened to all of us. We cooperated like good little boys and girls and then got bent over by everyone from our lawyers, the judge, the courts, the prosecutor and the law makers.
It is ok for them to lie because we are the scum of the Earth to them so the laws and rules do not apply to sex offenders and we have to just lay down and take it.
Most judges do not want to be known as going easy on the registry rats so they either rule against us or send it off for further review, which means the file goes in the bottom of the stack in the basement of the Kremlin.
Since I use to work in Law enforcement, I can tell you how much cops lie to make a case. One of numerous reasons I left. You are basically guilty until you can hire a good enough lawyer to prove otherwise then good luck getting restitution for the failed investigation that was weighted on but nothing more than a dishonest cop. Who is the jury going to believe. Someone accused of a sex crime or a decorated detective who has cleared 1000s of cases.
One of those dirty cops I worked with, went on to become a police chief at another smaller department for a few years before retiring.
The sad part is if most of us hadn’t taken a plea we’d still be in prison today.. Iv never understood how taking a plea deal suddenly makes you less dangerous.. For example, Take a deal and get probation for a couple of years. Loose to a Jury and get 25 years. That’s a pretty powerful example to me of just how bad a prosecutor wants to win..
I tried to go back and retract my plea stating I had new evidence(the only way you can go back to court if the statue of limitations runs out). Courts denied me.
Now with this evidence that we in fact had no say in the matter and is after the fact should be enough but they keep saying it is not punishment. Well then why do we go to jail for not giving an email, or for taking our Grandkid to the Park.
And how come some registrants NOT on probation have to pay a registration fee? ( I heard that if that holds water in the courts, every sheriff’s office is going to start doing that ). If it gets struck down, do those people get a refund?
Just have to love the double standards held by law enforcement, the courts, judges and law makers. We all know if any of the above had a child arrested for a sex crime of any nature, they would do everything in their power to either get it squashed or keep them off the registry. Could you imagine a police chief with a kid on the registry?