Articles

As expected, the State has filed a Motion to Dismiss in the Out of State Challenge. You can read a copy below. Motions to Dismiss are almost standard practice in these cases, so the attorney was expecting it and is prepared to respond. Marcoux v Swearingen – State’s MTD

I recently discovered this word, schadenfreude. A German word whose meaning is defined as the experience of pleasure, joy, or self-satisfaction that comes from learning of or witnessing the troubles, failures, or humiliation of another. I have a friend, currently in a Tennessee jail, who I have previously written about. He was accused of possessing child pornography. He denies having

A 68-year-old registered sex offender has no time left on his stay at a Marin County hotel and his case manager is making an unusual plea for someone to house his client so that he doesn’t have to sleep in a tent under a freeway. “The day I get released, I’m supposed to be on the street with diabetes,” said

The International Megan’s Law (IML) has negatively impacted registrants’ mobility across five dimensions, according to a newly released academic report.  The dimensions are legally, bureaucratically, societally, subjectively and relationally.  An advanced copy of that report can be viewed using the link below. According to the 200-page report, the IML is one part of a U.S. sex offence apparatus that continues

OK – that’s probably not the best choice for a title to a post on a forum for people required to register as sex offenders, but hopefully most who saw it recognized it as the title of a 1991 song from the ‘Nevermind’ album, put out by the alternative grunge band Nirvana. The Nevermind album was famous for two things,

Hamilton County Criminal Court Judge Barry Steelman has presided over criminal trials in Chattanooga for nearly a quarter century. But now, after a Tennessee Supreme Court temporary appointment made last week, the former assistant prosecutor [INTERESTING… A FORMER PROSECUTOR]  will serve a stint on one of the state’s new, special three-judge panels created by state lawmakers earlier this year to

A judge in Sacramento Superior Court today stopped the first challenge to the Tiered Registry Law.  The action was taken during a virtual hearing held before Judge Shama Mesiwala. The case in question involved a challenge to the assignment of individuals convicted of Penal Code Section 288(c)(1) to Tier 3, the highest tier.  The basis of the challenge was the

A three-judge state court in North Carolina has ruled that state’s felony disenfranchisement law unconstitutional as applied to individuals under supervision in the community, immediately restoring the vote to some 56,000 individuals. The decision means that in 24 states and the District of Columbia individuals convicted of felonies and serving a sentence in the community may vote.  North Carolina is

A subcommittee of the state Sentencing Commission is working to create a process to allow certain individuals to be removed from the public sex offender registry. After at least two attempts to reshape the law regarding people who have committed sex offenses, the General Assembly’s Incarceration and Collateral Consequences of Criminal Conviction Subcommittee will hear a presentation Thursday on two

Laws intended to tackle child abuse are resulting in young men in consensual relationships being imprisoned. Activists argue a more nuanced approach is needed ani*, 21, began dating Noor*, 17, two years ago. They couldn’t see each other during the Covid lockdowns, but when restrictions began to ease, they would meet on the deserted banks of a canal in a