Hawaiʻi Attorney General Opposes Proposed Changes to Sex Crimes in Model Penal Code

Hawaiʻi Attorney General Clare Connors and MIssissippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch are leading a bipartisan coalition of 37 Attorneys General that is urging the American Law Institute to reject proposed changes to the Model Penal Code that would weaken states’s abilities to prosecute sexual assault, abuse, exploitation and trafficking crimes. The proposed changes to Section 213 of the code also

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A shallow dive into new Justice Department’s Rules on SORNA

Yesterday, the US Department of Justice issued its Ruling on the registration requirements under the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA) that will become effective on January 7, 2022. I will refer to this summary as a “shallow dive” because the document issued by the Attorney General yesterday was 32 pages so there is a lot to unpack and

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‘Literally nowhere else they can go’: Homeless camp shutdown leaves people with few options

Another homeless camp is planned to be bulldozed leaving more registered citizens and others homeless in Brevard County.  A search of FDLE records showed only two persons with a Transient status in Brevard County because the County is registering such camp locations as a permanent address, which also requires the camp residents to use that property address on their Driver’s

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Plea Bargaining and Mass Incarceration

The United States incarcerates more people than any other country in the world. Overcriminalisation means courts have too many cases to try so plea bargaining has become a convenient mechanism for mass adjudication. Watch Premal Dharia, Executive Director of the Institute to end Mass Incarceration and Fair Trials’ Rebecca Shaeffer explain why plea bargaining has become both a facilitator and

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The Dobbs Wire: New SORNA regulations issued – effective Jan. 7, 2022

Headsup!  New SORNA regulations were issued today – take effect Jan. 7, 2022.  They will impact everybody on a sex offense registry. In the last months of the Trump administration the Department of Justice (DOJ) suddenly issued draft regulations under the federal Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA).  The draft regulations were published as required and hundreds of comments

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Florida Supreme Court makes it risky for a defendant to tell a judge ‘I’m innocent’

The Florida Supreme Court is sending this message to criminal defendants: If you think you were wrongly convicted, keep it to yourself. Ignoring long-standing law, the justices decided that when defendants dare to dispute their guilt instead of owning the crime, state trial judges may pile on extra prison time. With that, the justices normalized a penalty for defendants who

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NC: Phone scam targeting persons required to register as sex offenders

[FAC NOTE: We will keep sharing these as a reminder]   A phone scam in Orange County has been targeting registered sex offenders, prompting the Orange County Sheriff’s Office to warn the community about the risks of these calls. On Nov. 17, the sheriff’s office received two calls alerting them about the scam. “The person would answer the phone and

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TN: Huge win as Tennessee District Court slams the state for it’s registry violating ex post facto provisions.

Even though it had the benefit of relying on 6th circuit precedent, a Tennessee Middle District Court judge yesterday slammed the state for violating the Ex Post Facto provision of the Constitution by applying registry restrictions and conditions to people whose offenses predate those restrictions and conditions. In the Order, the Court stated, “Under the Constitution, a backward-looking sexual offender

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Plantation man arrested on charges of extorting, harassing state Sen. Lauren Book

Florida police have arrested 19-year-old XXXX of Plantation on cyber stalking and extortion charges after he allegedly faked sexually-explicit photos of state Sen. Lauren Book and threatened to distribute them to news media outlets. Book, a Plantation Democrat who chairs the Senate Democratic Caucus, is a widely known advocate for victims of child abuse and sexual abuse. According to the

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