"The ever-growing sex offender registry"
That's the headline on today's top story at Stateline.org, a nonpartisan online news site funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts. Reports John Gramlich:
Gramlich's provocative and fact-filled analysis continues HERE.A decade ago, when James Smith was 17, he and an accomplice forced another 17-year-old into a car with them near Green Bay, Wisconsin. The two wanted to collect drug money from a friend of the boy, and they forced him go along for the ride, making clear to him that if he didn’t, "he is going to get what is coming to him," according to the criminal complaint in the case. After the incident, Smith was convicted of a crime called "false imprisonment."
No one disputes that Smith was guilty of the crime for which he was convicted and sentenced to two years in prison. What Smith and many others watching his case found surprising was that the state of Wisconsin ordered him to register as a sex offender. Although his crime was not in any way sexual in nature, Smith's photo was posted in an online registry. He also faced restrictions in some parts of the state on how close he can live to schools, parks and other places where children commonly gather.
Last month, the highest court in Wisconsin held that Smith does, in fact, belong on the sex-offender registry. Just days earlier, the Supreme Court of Georgia came to the same conclusion in another case in which a man named Jake Rainer had been convicted on the same charge as Smith. The crime of false imprisonment, both courts found, counts as a sex offense under state law, even if nothing sexual happened.
The cases of Smith and Rainer illustrate a larger debate that is emerging in courts and legislatures around the nation: Have states gone too far in categorizing criminals as sex offenders? …
Critics argue that the court's decision implies that nearly anyone convicted of almost any crime could be added to the sex-offender registry. That’s what Ann Walsh Bradley, a Wisconsin Supreme Court justice who dissented in Smith's case, thinks. "Because traffic offenders may create a danger to the public," Bradley wrote in her dissenting opinion, "any offender found guilty of a traffic infraction could be required to register as a 'sex offender.' " …
3 comments:
My son was recently arrested for a sex crime in Northern CA that in reading the Penal Code seems to be much more severe than the totality of the circumstances he was involved in. I have used some of the statements you stated in this blog to formulate my statement to the judge. Unfortunately, my wife and I are financially unable to afford good legal counsel and what they claim to provide i unacceptable. I fear that my son will lose his life before it has begun because in Lassen County, stigma's are strong, common sense is contraband, and the result is tragedy. My ignorance has caused me to fail my son....
I agree with the majority in both cases. It's not the court's problem to fix what the legislature has wrought. These type of public registries are stupid and counterproductive (if rehabilitation is the goal) but that is not the court's problem.
I think a much more difficult question is one of political strategy. Should we welcome the expansion of such registries or not? Part of me thinks yes because the only thing expansion can do in the long-run is dilute the stigma attached to such registries. In ten years when everyone is on the registry, being on the registry becomes meaningless. On the other hand, taking such an approach tacitly approves of the existence of such registries in the first place and turns the debate into who should be on them rather they if they should exist at all.
I guess my overall position is that any change is better than the status quo. I'd like to see them go away but rendering registries less awful is better than nothing.
Daniel
Adam, I hear from many parents across the country with similar stories. Unfortunately, I do not know of any legal resources in your area. You might try contacting Reform Sex Offender Laws, a national organization with a chapter in California. You can find them online at www.reformsexoffenderlaws.org. They also have a volunteer support hotline at 800-773-4319 or through email, hotline@thesupporthotline.org. Perhaps they will be able to suggest other resources for you and your son. Good luck!
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