Update on Recent Court Decisions for Florida Sex Offenders
Dear Members and Advocates,
Please join us tomorrow night for our monthly member call. The topic of the call will be a legal update covering recent court decisions across the country impacting people required to register, with a specific focus on the status of our Florida Ex Post Facto challenge. Our speaker will be attorney Val Jonas, of Weitzner & Jonas P.A., who is the lead counsel retained to represent the plaintiffs in that challenge. The call is scheduled for 8PM EST and will last approximately one hour. The final fifteen minutes of the call will be reserved for questions relating to the topic of the call. Callers are reminded not to ask questions about their individual cases or personal legal matters.
In related news, this past week the ACLU filed a response to Miami-Dade County’s Motion for Summary Judgment in the Sex Offender Residency Restriction (SORR) challenge that has been in court for 4 years already. The ACLU’s press release, copy of the pleading and an excellent video on the topic can be found at this link: https://floridaactioncommittee.org/advocates-file-response-in-lawsuit-challenging-miami-dade-countys-unconstitutional-sex-offender-residence-restrictions/. The case itself is scheduled for trial next month. There is still no order from the judge on the Internet Identifier challenge.
Also significant, last week the State of Florida held our primary elections. The office of Governor is critically important. The two candidates for the next Governor of Florida are Ron DeSantis (R) and Andrew Gillum (D). We encourage our members to review the candidate’s websites; https://desantis.house.gov/legislative-initiatives and https://andrewgillum.com/issues to see where they stand on issues that are important to our population, such as criminal justice reform. It is important that everyone make an educated and informed choice in deciding who to endorse for our Governor. Even if you cannot vote yourself, you can help campaign for a candidate and help influence friends and family to vote for them.
We look forward to having you join us on the call tomorrow night.
Florida Action Committee
SOME HEADLINES FROM THIS WEEK
Kansas Vigilante Tries to Stop Former Offender from Attending Church
A Derby, KS man is on a mission to block a former sex offender from attending church. According to the Derby Informer, Joshua Kippenberger, is trying to get a church parishioner banned from St. Mary Catholic Church in Derby, because he is on the sex offender registry….
Federal judges butt heads with U.S. lawmakers over legality of ankle monitors for nonviolent suspects
SOURCE In a clash that has surfaced in federal courthouses across the country and a recent Houston case, a collection of judges have held it is their duty to set conditions of release for accused sex offenders despite a strict law that limits their discretion. The…
Florida’s 2nd District Court of Appeals Affirms Loss of Parental Rights of Sexual Predator
The Second District Court of Appeals affirmed the termination of parental rights of a father over his own children. The man is currently incarcerated (he was sentenced to 5 years) and is designated a sexual predator. Nothing in the record indicated that he abused his…
US Spends More on Incarceration than on Education.
I was shocked by a statistic I heard for the first time at the NACDL conference last month. The United States spends three times more money to incarcerate its citizens than it does on K-12 Education! That’s horrible! Not only does it show how grossly disproportionate…
Does anyone have a way for me to call into a phone number and listen in on these hearings? If so send me an email and give me the number and time and I will try to be there. Thank you.
Did you get a number?
Yes, I did and thank you, Debbie. Perhaps you can give me a call so we could talk for a minute or two.
By the way, this is Tim again, I forgot to express that I am in Kansas and not Florida. I’m actively involved learning everything I can about the registration act as well as the 20 states that have passed SVP laws. Just a little background information that’s all.
Two days ago I read in the Orlando Sentinel that Ron Desantis had two days to choose who would be his running mate as lieutenant governor for the state of Florida. Of the three possibilities, one was Lauren Book. I see in this morning’s paper that he did not choose her. That is a small blessing unto itself.
Neither chose her. It would have been a disaster had they.
She was apparently on the short list for both.
I never got the info on a phone number or conference code number. I was unable to listen.
What number do we call? What code for conference? Not enough info.
Member call in info is posted on our site and on every weekly update sent. If you do not subscribe to our weekly update, let us know and we will add you.
Is the number for the conference call the number on top of the page? 904-438-8322?
Please add me for weekly calls info.
Debi – please contact anita@floridaactioncommittee.org and ask her to add you to the mailing list for the weekly updates.
I found the number and the info, however, I saw the posting on FB yesterday saying it was tonight. Obviously I missed it. Is it recorded for access somewhere?