Around the Web

How Appealing reports that the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld the dismissal of a lawsuit against a Nebraska judge who banned "rape" and other words in a sexual assault trial.  The 8th Circuit's per curiam opinion is available here.

A Public Defender mentions a couple of news stories that discuss the lack of rehabilitation for sex offenders and the problems with GPS monitoring in the state of Connecticut. 

The Associated Press reports that Texas law enforcement agents have raided the grounds of a polygamist compound, after receiving information about a girl, who allegedly had a baby at 15 with a 50-year-old man.  The man was convicted last year of conspiracy to commit sexual conduct with a minor. He was ordered to register as a sex offender for three years while he is on probation.

A Nevada judge has struck down Nevada’s new sex offender laws as they relate to juveniles.  The law being challenged is based on the federal Adam Walsh Act, which "lumps teenage sex offenders 14 and older in with adults when it comes to certain punishments and requires that many of those juvenile offenders be included in Internet sex offender registries." Nevada's new laws would be applied retroactively, "meaning anyone who was at least 14 years old and convicted of a crime against a child after July 1, 1956, is subject to the new regulations."

The Georgia Senate has unanimously voted to "place new restrictions on the copying and inspection of sexually explicit material involving minors used as courtroom evidence."  The bill is seen as a response to a state prosecutor in the Genarlow Wilson case who released copies of the video showing Mr. Wilson engaging in sex acts with two underage girls.  The prosecutor argued that the state's open records law required him to release it to anyone who requested it, but a U.S. Attorney labeled it child pornography and ordered him to stop.  As I was one of the vocal critics of the prosecutor at that time, I'm happy to see the Legislature take steps to ensure such a release doesn't occur in the future.

Sentencing Law and Policy reports that the "Georgia General Assembly has passed legislation reinstating residency and work restrictions on registered sex offenders."  The move comes after the Georgia Supreme Court struck down part of the state's sex offender residency restriction last year on a takings theory. 

Comments

[Steve]

You forgot this story:

http://www.thelocal.se/10950.html

Interesting cultural difference in attitude.

[Steve]

You forgot this story:

http://www.thelocal.se/10950.html

Interesting cultural difference in attitude.

[eAdvocate]

RE: Georgia Legislature, clearly a fight between views of the legislature, who ignores the constitution, and the courts, who follows the constitution. What happened to common sense?

[jjoe]

RE: Genarlow Wilson tape

Wrong response. McDade should have been indicted by now. The last sentence in this article says it all:http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-07-13-teen-sex-tape_N.htm?csp=34

"McDade fought a bill in the Legislature earlier this year that would have helped Wilson. Some lawmakers who were on the fence changed their mind after seeing the tape."

He knew exactly what he was doing, and he knew he was committing a crime doing it. Anyone else would be sitting in federal prison.

[Mark]

"The Associated Press reports that Texas law enforcement agents have raided the grounds of a polygamist compound, after receiving information about a girl, who allegedly had a baby at 15 with a 50-year-old man"

How exactly does that work? If she reported it in person, why did they let her go back? If she didnt report it in person and did it over the phone, how was that enough evidence to basically siege the entire sect? Something doesn't seem to add up here and this whole thing seems way out in left field based on what i have read. The way they carted off everyone,its more like they are trying everything and anything to take this sect down.

[disillusion1998]

jjoe, you are exactly right about David McDade. He is a criminal thug who will break the law in order to harass people he wants to target. But much worse than him are some of Georgia's criminal legislators, especially one of their "leaders", Senator Eric Johnson. He is a criminal who is a grave danger to the state of Georgia and its citizens.

But besides that, he is also one of the legislators that somehow and unbelievably actually thought that it was okay for them to obtain and watch the sex video of Genarlow Wilson and the young girl. During the entire time period around doing that he was vehemently arguing in the media that Wilson should spend 10 years in prison for having consensual oral sex with the 15 year old girl when he was 17. He was arguing that it was a fair sentence for consensual sex among teenagers. But somehow it was okay for an old guy to watch them having sex?

He said he watched the video because the legislature was considering legislation that would have freed Wilson. Yeah, right. Why would the contents matter? Johnson should have been considering the fairness of Wilson's sentence only in the context of the "crimes" of which he was convicted. The jury spoke - Wilson was "guilty" of consensual oral sex with a fellow high school student. It doesn't matter if he was guilty of doing it in a manner in which Eric Johnson doesn't approve or was "guilty" of anything else Eric Johnson doesn't like.

Johnson is also the genius that wrote a bill (SB 1) that was just passed in order to criminalize the photographing (or filming, etc) of minors by anyone listed on Georgia's sex offender registry (His bill contained only that single provision, the House tacked everything else onto his bill in order to get their BS passed.). Yeah, that's not punishment or just blatant, retroactive harassment. Obviously, it's completely a public safety issue so there's nothing ex post facto about it. Georgia's criminal legislators make me sick. Additionally, only a complete fool believes the law will do anything productive. All it will do is needlessly harass people who are just living. It also aggravates and provokes them (and that really does negatively affect Georgia). It has no chance of stopping anyone from taking anyone's picture.

Anyway, bottom line is Johnson absolutely knew that Wilson was in jail for 10 years ONLY because of the "victim's" age. Johnson knew the girl was underage. He knew their sex video is child porn. He knew it is illegal to possess and watch the video. But he also knew he could get away with doing it.

[jjoe]

RE: Eric Johnson et al

Is there a committee in Georgia that is looking into what actually happened, and who all was involved? Has the media been following up on this?

I am amazed this is not getting more attention, but maybe I shouldn't be, as Gonzales was doing the same thing:http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/9/14/104719/159

Last fall I spoke with the media rep about his press release regarding the tape, and where the investigation stood: http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/gan/press/2007/07-10-07.pdf

He couldn't confirm anything, but he developed an attitude the longer I spoke with him. He also knew nothing about CEOS, which supervises a lot of these cases.

If possible, keep the heat on Johnson and his co-conspirators. If that was his defense, then I guess he can experiment with meth every time a bill is proposed to control it.