Wisconsin High Court: Lifetime GPS Monitoring Not Punishment
The Wisconsin Supreme Court says a judge wasn’t required to tell a man he would face a lifetime of GPS monitoring upon pleading guilty to child sex crimes because such monitoring is a public safety measure, not a form of punishment.
A Wisconsin judge wasn’t required to tell a man he would face a lifetime of GPS monitoring upon pleading guilty to child sex crimes because such monitoring is a public safety measure, not a form of punishment, the state Supreme Court ruled Friday.
The court concluded in a rare 7-0 decision that monitoring is designed to protect the public rather than punish the offender further.
“(Lifetime monitoring) provides a middle ground between releasing dangerous sex offenders into the public wholly unsupervised and civil commitment,” Justice Michael Gableman wrote in the ruling. “In light of the ‘frightening and high’ rate of recidivism for sex offenders, the relatively minimal intrusion of lifetime GPS tracking … is not excessive in relation to protecting the public.”
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None of them care because it doesn’t affect them directly. The lies about the high rates of recidivism will never be corrected because the people in power don’t want it. Period. They will never correct themselves.
We disagree – several courts have cited the false recidivism rates.
If several Court’s have citied the false recidivims rates, please post or repost. I rely on the information supplied from this group rather than “fake news” media. And I don’t have ready access to court rulings. Much appreciated.
Hi Bill, its not that the judges do not care, the reason is, if they side with the sex offender they fear the backlash/strong and negative reaction by a large number of people will be heading their way. Anyone in any office and in any court that favors leniency of any sort for sex offenders fears the backlash that will no doubt follow. Anyone in their right mind knows that all these sex offender laws/registry’s are punishments and go blatantly against the US constitution.
Bruce,
Thanks for your input. But I think you miss a salient fact: federal judges, including Supreme Court Justices, are appointed for LIFE. So, they are not susceptible to replacement by voters. Just as SCOTUS establishes binding decisions for lower court’s to follow, so do federal appellate court’s and federal district courts. So, when a higher court such as the Wisconsin Supreme Court establishes binding precendet, the lower state Court’s MUST follow those decisions. If crap flows down hill, just as it has from SCOTUS and now the Wisconsin Supreme Court, then we all suffer from that load of crap because we are all at the bottom. I’d love to live in a real where the highest court in the land is willing to admit it’s wrong, but in reality that’s just not what we have. I don’t mean to rain on anyone’s parade, but I don’t envision the higher courts changing their minds and in essence changing public policy.
The only problem with the higher courts is that when they rule in favor of RSO’s none of the lower courts or politicians pay any attention to them or they drag their feet as long as they can…an ordinance is unconstitutional in one county/state and in the next door county/state a similar ordinance is still enforced awaiting for as long as politicians can to have the court come down on ‘them’. We see it all the time around the country.
You are right on, Bruce. Politics! That’s why people have to pursue their appeals all the way to the federal level. Federal judges are appointed for life. They don’t have to worry about the next election.
Okay!
Then put GPS on everyone! It’s not a form of punishment.
If GPS tracking of a human is not a form of punishment, then also the act of cutting it off should not be either.
‘Relatively minimal intrusion’ – what complete bullshit. Let these judges wear those devices for a month before they vote again.
This is terrifying absolutely terrifying…….
You are shackled literally and physically. Tagged like an animal for life? How is that not punishment?
Again with the ‘ frightening and high’ B.S.????? REALLY??? Clearly the Wisconsin Supreme Court doesn’t know how to read the statistics from the DOJ., or any other reports or stats. ( maybe they forgot their glasses, or blind in one eye and can’t see out of the other.)
Now its too late, The decision is unfortunately already made. Stupid politics with a ‘hot potato’ issue that politicians don’t want to touch because they want to be the relected.
I hope this man has the determination to appeal the decision to the federal courts. Too many give up too soon. Offenders are charged a daily fee for those gps monitors. Mine that I wore for 2 years while on parole here in Michigan cost about $4,800 per year. Fines are certainly classifies as punishment, and this is a lifetime fine. In the Doe v Snyder Michigan case the federal courts agreed with what we already know, that the sex offender registries are punitive, plain and simple.