Justice delayed and Prolonged for Sex Offenders

Dear Members and Advocates,

Last week, a man received the relief that will hopefully allow him to re-unite with his family and put something over 20 years in his past behind him. An Illinois Court found the man had “been duly punished and fulfilled his societal requirements” and that “the People of the State of Illinois are not jeopardized by granting the relief requested”.  What was the State of Illinois punishing him for? For visiting their state for a week! Illinois, like some other states in the US, keep people on their registry even after they leave the state, even if they leave the country, even if their crime wasn’t committed in that state, even if their only connection to the State was to visit a sick parent for a week! Florida is one of those cruel states.

Out of respect to the individual, specific case details and a copy of the order will not be shared at this time (and certainly only after he has been successfully re-united with his family). However, the situation is not uncommon to what takes place in other states and to countless other individuals. His nightmare began in October of last year. More than fifteen years after leaving the United States to live a peaceful, law abiding life in another country his mother became gravely ill and he had to travel to Illinois to see her. Even though he had already been removed from the registry in the state of his conviction (the requirement expired after 10 years), abiding by the laws of Illinois, he registered his stay, letting them know he would be returning home a week later.

Thanks to International Megan’s Law, and unbeknownst to him, the US sent a notification to the receiving country and he was denied entry. Never mind that he had lived there for more than 15 years, built a business there, had a wife and children who were there. So long as he was registered in Illinois he wasn’t getting in. He spent the last 8 months in exile in a third country waiting for his case to be heard, draining his savings, not knowing what the outcome will be, not knowing if he would ever return to his home and business, not knowing how, where or when he would be able to reunite with his family. More than twenty years after his offense and having not committed another crime since – merely being present in a State for a week. And they say this is not punishment!?!?

Florida is one of the states that keeps people on it’s registry regardless of whether they are in the community. Today, less than half of the more than seventy thousand people on the Florida Sex Offender registry actually live in the community. There are people who are incarcerated, people who have been deported, even people who died, who are on the list. Beginning July 1, 2018, if someone with a registrable offense in their history visits the State of Florida for three or more days, they get placed on the Florida Sex Offender registry FOR LIFE!

Never mind that they have long since went back home, when you Google their name or search the Florida registry, their name and picture pops up for all with internet access to see. For what purpose though? The intent of Megan’s Law is to notify the public of people in their community who have committed a certain offense. Not to notify the public of people who may have visited their community in the past but are no longer there.

For this reason, many people outside of Florida find themselves on the Florida Sex Offender registry, even though they only visited briefly. The FAQ page of the Florida registry even says, “NOTE: A Sexual offender/predator’s information is not removed from the registry’s public website when the sexual offender/predator leaves the state of Florida. NOTE: Removal from another state’s registration requirement does not guarantee removal from the requirement to register in Florida.” How insane is that?

FAC receives many requests for assistance from people outside of Florida who are burdened by being on the Florida registry. In many cases they are already off the registry in their home state, they are in a tier that does not publicly display them or they left the country. But for the fact that they were present in Florida at some point, they cannot live free from stigma wherever in the world they presently are. In an effort to assist these individuals seek relief, FAC is helping to organize a challenge. However, it is important to keep in mind that the majority of FAC members are still in Florida and this challenge, if successful, would not benefit them. For that reason, FAC cannot utilize funds from our general legal fund or member dues to support the challenge. It would simply not be fair to the majority of our members, for FAC to invest in a challenge that would not benefit the majority.

To accommodate, FAC has set up a segregated fund called the “Out of State Challenge” and proceeds donated to that fund will be earmarked for that purpose. We will coordinate with attorney Ron Kleiner (the attorney who represented the individual mentioned in this week’s update) who will be the one representing the litigants in this challenge. If you have questions or would like more information, you can write to legal@floridaactioncommittee.org and we will route you to the individual who is helping coordinate the challenge. If you would like to donate to this challenge, you can do so at the following: https://floridaactioncommittee.org/donations/. Even if you may not directly benefit from this challenge, please consider helping if you can, out of compassion for those who are separated from their families or are being punished by our state. You never know when it might be you. Also, if we are successful in cutting the Florida registry in half, we will have delivered a huge blow to the machine that’s punishing all of us.

Sincerely,

The Florida Action Committee

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