SC: Man says he still has to register as sex offender for having sex with another man
A South Carolina man is suing Attorney General Alan Wilson and SLED Chief Mark Keel, claiming that he still has to register as a sex offender for a buggery charge in which he says he was convicted, and later pardoned, for having consensual sex with another man.
The man, identified as “John Doe” in the lawsuit, says he was convicted for the charge in 2001, two years before the Supreme Court ruled that laws that criminalized homosexual sex violated due process and are invalid under the 14th amendment.
The lawsuit states that John Doe’s partner was also convicted of buggery.
Doe’s lawyers say their client was pardoned in 2006 for the charge, but their client is still subject to sex offense registration restrictions.
It is about time lawmakers aren’t seeing which way and who are or they think should be on registry
Sadly, most attorneys would tell you that a pardon wipes out the conviction as if it never happened. Many times a pardon is sought just for the purpose of being able to hunt with a firearm again. Sad that people have to spend so much time and money on litigation where common sense should have prevailed.
I got to thinking back when I worked in law enforcement.
When we dealt with anyone that had a record we had a few labels for them.
1) Ex-cons
2) Ex-offenders
3) Former Criminals
4) And some used Rehabilitated individuals.
We did not even use the term sex offenders for those who did their time. When we came across someone who was released with a sex offense, a lot of the squad would say “Oh we have a call on “Joe the pervert”.
Kind of crude and degrading, but after the call, we didn’t keep driving by their house messing with them, we had other things to do. Maybe someone would laugh and make a sick joke that was inappropriate then later not give it another thought
Basically everyone at that time no matter the crime, if they did their time and were not getting in any more trouble, “Most” would leave them alone as otherwise you would get a harassment complaint. Again, we had “real” crime to take care of, not wasting time checking on people, that is a probation officer’s job and these released individuals were NOT on probation so why bother them and pull cops away from important duties?
Point is, sex offender for someone who has done their time, labels you forever as if you are every day waking up planning your next victim. They said we cannot be cured, well for one, there is nothing for me to be “Cured” from since I, and others simply made some poor choices.
Also, a few decades ago, many diseases had no cure but now they do. And yet We are banished into the broken for life pile of un-curable Freaks of nature.