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Sex Offense Litigation and Policy Resource Center

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Recent Cases

  • Farrara v. Commonwealth (Va. 2021)

  • State v. Brown (N.J. 2021)

  • United States v. Hamilton (4th Cir. 2021)

  • State v. C.G. (Wis. Ct. App. 2021)

  • Maves v. Alaska Dep’t of Public Safety (Alaska 2021)

  • Riley v. State Dep’t of Public Safety (Nev. 2021)

  • White v. LaClair (E.D.N.Y. 2021)

  • United States v. Ellis (4th Cir. 2021)

  • Brown v. Tarrant County (5th Cir. 2021)

  • In re Gadlin (Cal. 2020)

Contact Information

Sex Offense Litigation and Policy Resource Center

875 Summit Avenue
Saint Paul, MN 55105

Professor Eric Janus, Director

eric.janus@mitchellhamline.edu

Guy Hamilton-Smith, Legal Fellow

guy.hamiltonsmith@mitchellhamline.edu


CARES Act Stimulus Payments and Incarcerated Individuals

On September 24th, a federal court in the Northern District of California granted a preliminary injunction requiring the government to stop excluding people who are incarcerated from receiving stimulus payments. The court found that, under the text of …

Posted: October 3, 2020

Department of Justice Proposes Rule on Federal SORNA, Seeks Public Comment

On August 13th, 2020 the United States Department of Justice published a proposed rule — available via the Federal Register — that illuminates how it is interpreting and will seek to enforce various registration requirement provisions that were passe …

Posted: August 29, 2020

NYC Bar Report to Gov. Andrew Cuomo: Call to Temporarily Suspend In-Person Reporting Requirements

By NYC Bar Committee | April 3, 2020 Dear Governor Cuomo: The New York City Bar Association’s Criminal Justice Operations Committee and the Sex Offender Registration Act Working Group write this letter to urge the temporary suspension of in-person repo …

Posted: April 8, 2020

Detroit News — Judge: State sex offender registry can’t be enforced in pandemic

By Mark Hicks | April 6, 2020 A federal judge is commanding state authorities to stop enforcing rules under the Michigan Sex Offender Registry Act during the coronavirus pandemic. According to an interim order U.S. District Judge Robert Cleland issued …

Posted: April 7, 2020

COVID-19: Strategies for Reducing Transmission

In response to the current COVID-19 Pandemic, the Sex Offense Litigation and Policy Resource Center has published a set of guidelines for law enforcement, policy experts, and others with respect to law and policy focused on those with past convictions …

Posted: March 28, 2020

Reason — After He Found California’s Indefinite Detention of Sex Offenders Wasn’t Working, the State Shut Him Down and Destroyed His Research

By Steven Yoder | From the April 2020 Issue In late 2006, a public defender went before a Napa County judge to argue for his client’s freedom. Rex McCurdy, a 49-year-old man, had been detained for seven years at Atascadero State Hospital under a 1995 C …

Posted: March 6, 2020

Reason — Sex Offender Laws Are Broken. These Women Are Working to Fix Them.

By Hallie Lieberman | Feb. 2020 Sandy Rozek is the polar opposite of what comes to mind when you hear the word activist. A 78-year-old great-grandmother and retired high school English teacher who lives in Houston, Rozek is not woke, doesn’t post on Tw …

Posted: January 25, 2020

The Appeal — Wisconsin Came Close To Changing A Rule That Often Leaves People On Sex Offense Registries Homeless

By Steven Yoder | January 3, 2020 In May 2016, a local Fox station in Wisconsin reported a remarkable story. That March, a man who had served 11 years on second-degree child sexual assault had been released from prison. The city of Waukesha had a rule …

Posted: January 4, 2020

The Appeal: What Is The Purpose of Sex Offense Registries?

By Sarah Lustbader | December 10th, 2019 Two days ago, the Union-Recorder in Georgia published a bizarre editorial. The editorial board noted that the state’s sex offender registry system drives people into homelessness and deprived them of counseling …

Posted: December 14, 2019

The Philadelphia Inquirer: Sex offender registry law in Pa. facing life-or-death test at Supreme Court

By Angela Couloumbis | December 5th, 2019 The landmark Pennsylvania law that for nearly a quarter of a century has required a public registry of sex offenders and community notification about their whereabouts is facing a life-or-death challenge before …

Posted: December 5, 2019

WPR: Gov. Tony Evers Vetoes Changes To Sex Offender Residency Requirements

By Laurel White | November 25th, 2019 Gov. Tony Evers has vetoed a bipartisan bill that would have lifted state restrictions on how close people convicted of sex crimes can live to schools. The bill, which passed the state Assembly and Senate unanimous …

Posted: November 26, 2019

Miami Herald: Miami-Dade uproots sex offender camp yet again. Does harsh law really make public safer?

By Charles Rabin | November 22nd, 2019 The latest eviction order came earlier this month: Some 70 paroled child sex offenders, now living in a flimsy village of tents, cardboard boxes and rusty campers in an industrial zone just east of Miami Internati …

Posted: November 23, 2019

NJ.com — Female juvenile sex offender, abused as a child, challenges law putting her on Megan’s List

By Joe Atmonavege | November 17, 1029 The state’s Public Defender’s office is hoping to join a federal lawsuit that is seeking to eliminate Megan’s Law registration for all juvenile sex offenders in New Jersey, a move the attorneys hope will strengthen …

Posted: November 18, 2019

Boston Review: Halloween and Stranger Danger

By Christine Hume | October 31, 2019 Do you believe in the boogeyman? This is the pivotal question of the Halloween movie franchise. The tension around naming the movies’ antagonist foregrounds the problem of seeing him: “it” or “him,” “thing” or “huma …

Posted: November 11, 2019

The Outline: What Follows Punishment?

When people convicted of sex offenses in the United States finish their criminal sentences, they generally face a slew of regulations and restrictions — from offender registries to residency restrictions to the possibility of lifelong civil commitment — that leave them isolated, stigmatized, and surveilled. But while Richard knew that living in the free world as a convicted sex offender wouldn’t be easy, nothing prepared him for the reality. …

Posted: September 27, 2019

The Appeal: Alabama Sex Offender Registry Is Cruel and Unusual Punishment for Teenagers, Lawsuit Argues

Southern Poverty Law Center and Juvenile Law Center asked a federal court today to strike down Alabama’s sex offender registry requirements for young people who were convicted in adult court. The complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama, argues it is cruel and unusual punishment to impose mandatory lifetime registry restrictions for conduct that occurred when someone was still under age 18. …

Posted: September 19, 2019

The Marshall Project: When People with Intellectual Disabilities Are Punished, Parents Pay the Price

Carol Nesteikis, 66, has never committed a crime. But for two years, from six in the evening to six in the morning the next day, she lived under de facto house arrest with her 32-year-old son, Adam. It wasn’t because she wanted to. The home itself was a kind of punishment, she says. …

Posted: September 13, 2019

The Appeal: The Rise of Registries (Podcast)

Earlier this year, lawmakers in New York proposed a bill that would bar people convicted of multiple sex offenses from ever using New York City’s subway system again. The plan, which would inflict a form of banishment in the name of public safety, is part of a broader pattern. Sex offender registries increasingly include children under the age of 18, and some states permit children as young as 7 to be registered. But a growing body of evidence suggests that our reliance on registries—not just for sex crimes but also for terrorism, gun, and drug offenses—may allow politicians to look like they’re taking action while actually doing little to curb abuse. To discuss the rise of registries, we are joined by Appeal contributor Guy Hamilton-Smith and Elizabeth Letourneau, professor and director of the Moore Center for the Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

Posted: September 12, 2019

The Appeal: People On Sex Offender Registry Should Shelter From Dorian In Jail

For some people convicted of sex crimes in Florida, the only shelter open to them during Hurricane Dorian was the county jail. In some counties, people on the registry were barred from shelters set up for those evacuating, and told to go to separate locations, away from children and other community members. If they attempted to stay with friends or relatives, they faced daunting residency and registration requirements, according to the Florida Action Committee, which advocates for reform of sex offender registry laws. Failure to comply can mean a felony conviction and incarceration. In Osceola County, a separate shelter was set up at the housing agency for “sex offenders,” meaning people on the registry, according to a local news report by WKMG-TV. And in Flagler County, registered sex offenders were directed to go to the sheriff’s office for shelter, according to a WJXT-TV report. The Nassau County Board of Commissioners website advised people on the sex offender registry to seek shelter in the county jail. “It was such a traumatic experience to be incarcerated. I’m not going to subject myself to that voluntarily,” a representative with the Florida Action Committee told The Appeal. “I’d rather tie myself to a tree.” …

Posted: September 4, 2019

Stateside: ACLU’s Miriam Aukerman on Sex Offender Registries

In 2016, the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals issued an opinion in Does v. Snyder declaring Michigan’s sex offense registry unconstitutional. The ACLU has since gone back to federal court seeking to enforce the 6th Circuit’s decision. Miriam Aukerman appeared on NPR’s Stateside to discuss the litigation, ongoing efforts to achieve reform, and sex offense policies more generally.

Posted: September 2, 2019

WaPo: In Arlington, a judge must decide if a nonviolent sex offender should stay incarcerated after serving his sentence

On Monday, the Circuit Court in liberal Arlington County will be the scene of a heavy-handed morality play, with prosecutors seeking lifelong incarceration for a young gay man who has already paid an extraordinary price for youthful, nonviolent sexual indiscretions. Virginia, like 19 other states and the federal government, has a Sexually Violent Predators Act (SVPA). Under these laws, people who have completed their criminal sentences under any of a large number of sex-related offenses can be indefinitely detained in a high-security facility until the state determines that they no longer present a risk, typically never. …

Posted: August 25, 2019

KTUU — Without guidance, Alaska judges to ‘muddle through’ sex offender registry removal decisions

Without guidance, Alaska Superior Court judges will have to “muddle their way through” decisions over how a person can apply to be removed from the sex offender registry, says John Skidmore, the director of the criminal division with the Department of Law. In June, the Alaska Supreme Court determined that people on the sex offender registry had a right to due process, effectively meaning they could apply to be removed from the registry if they can prove they are no longer dangerous. Currently, there are roughly 3,500 Alaskans on the registry. Depending on the severity of the crime or past criminal history, some people are on the registry for 15 years, some for life. …

Posted: August 12, 2019

[NPR] – The Inequity of Sex Offender Registries

The Takeaway | July 17th, 2019 As the trial of Jeffrey Epstein unfolds, more and more details of his life have come under scrutiny, including the fact that he was embraced by high society despite having to register as a sex offender in New York and Flo …

Posted: July 18, 2019

[Huffington Post] — Sex Offender Registries Don’t Keep Kids Safe, But Politicians Keep Expanding Them Anyway

By Michael Hobbes | July 16th, 2019 The first time Damian Winters got evicted was in 2015. He was living with his wife and two sons in suburban Nashville when his probation officer called his landlord and informed him that Winters was a registered sex …

Posted: July 16, 2019

[The Appeal] — The Struggle to Be Trans in Minnesota’s Sex Offender Program

By Sessi Blanchard | July 15th, 2019 On July 7, 2018, Kendra Michelle Lovejoy did to herself what no one else would: surgery. Wielding a disposable razor, she made incisions into her testicles. She was rushed to the hospital where physicians performed …

Posted: July 15, 2019

[Reuters] Conservative U.S. Justice Gorsuch again sides with liberals in criminal case

By Lawrence Hurley | June 26th, 2019 For the second time in three days, conservative U.S. Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch on Wednesday sided with his four liberal colleagues in a 5-4 ruling in favor of a criminal defendant, on this occasion an Oklah …

Posted: June 29, 2019

[The Appeal] New Law Forces Dozens on Tennessee’s Sex Offender Registry From Their Homes

By Steven Yoder | June 28th, 2019 Last Sunday, Jason broke the news to his 7-year-old daughter: He’d be moving out. When a new Tennessee law goes into effect Monday, he will be barred from living with her. The law, Senate Bill 425, also forbids him fro …

Posted: June 29, 2019

[SCOTUSblog] Opinion analysis: Court refuses to resurrect nondelegation doctrine

By Mila Sohoni | June 20th, 2019 The Supreme Court today refused to resurrect the nondelegation doctrine, the long-dormant principle that Congress cannot transfer its power to legislate to another branch of government. The case, Gundy v. United States, …

Posted: June 29, 2019

Sex Offenders Need Not Disclose Facebook Accounts to Law Enforcement, NY Court of Appeals Rules

By Dan Clark | June 27, 2019 Persons convicted of sex offenses in New York do not have to specifically disclose to the state that they have, and use, an account on Facebook, so long as they register their email address and don’t use a fake name, the st …

Posted: June 29, 2019

[Washington Spectator] – Modern-Day Gulag in the Golden State

By Barbara Koeppel | June 4th, 2019 Back in 1997, the Supreme Court ruled that the practice known as civil commitment was legal. This meant that 20 states—which had passed laws permitting the ongoing incarceration of sex offenders—could continue to kee …

Posted: June 12, 2019

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Topics

Jurisdiction

10th Cir. 11th Cir. 1st Cir. 2nd Cir. 3rd Cir. 4th Cir. 5th Cir. 6th Cir. 7th Cir. 8th Cir. 9th Cir. 9th Circuit Alabama Alaska Arizona California Colorado Connecticut D.C. Cir. Florida Georgia Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Neb. Nebraska New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina North Dakota Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas United States Supreme Court Utah Vermont Virginia Vt. Washington Wisconsin

Constitutional Issues

10th Amendment 14th Amendment 1st Amendment 4th Amendment 5th Amendment 6th Amendment 8th Amendment Assistance of Counsel Bail Bill of Attainder Compelled Speech Double Jeopardy Due Process Equal Protection Ex Post Facto Foreign Commerce Clause Fourteenth Amendment Freedom of Association Full Faith and Credit Habeas Corpus Necessary and Proper Nondelegation Overbreadth Privileges and Immunities Procedural Due Process Right to Jury Trial Right to Parent Right to Travel Ripeness Speedy Trial Standing Substantive Due Process Takings Clause Treaty power Void-for-Vagueness

Substantive Issues

Actual Innocence Administrative exhaustion Administrative Procedures Act AEDPA Antisocial Personality Disorder Apprendi / Alleyne As-Applied AWA Burden of Proof Churches Civil Commitment Collateral Estoppel Conditions of Confinement Conditions of Release Daubert Deregistration Evidentiary Standards Expungement Extraterritorial Registration Failure to Register Familial Relationships GPS Halloween Hearsay Heck bar Homelessness Housing HUD Immigration Ineffective Assistance International Travel Internet Identifiers Internet Restrictions Jury Instructions Juvenile Registration Mental disorder Non-Sexual Offense Notification Out-of-state Offense Paraphilia Diagnosis Pardon Parole Personality Disorder Plea Agreement Plethysmograph PLRA Polygraphs Preemption Presence Restrictions Procedural Default PROTECT Act Punishment Qualified Immunity Recidivism Reclassification Res Judicata Residential Banishment Retroactive Application (Non-EPF) Revocation of Supervision Risk School Property Second / Subsequent Offense Sentencing Sexual Predator designation Sign Posting Special Needs Supervised Release SVP Tiering / Classification Tolling Transitional Release Travel Travel Restrictions Treatment Programs Voting Rights






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