The New Haven Register has an interesting editorial entitled: Registry doesn't tell whole story of sex offenders. The editorial primarily argues that sex offender registries fail to distinguish between so called "Romeo and Juliet" cases and "the kinds of sex offenders that really keep parents up at night."
On the same day the U.S. Supreme Court handed down Kennedy v. Louisiana, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal signed into law "a measure that would force convicted rapists and others to undergo chemical castration." The law will apparently allow judges to order chemical castrations for convicted rapists and other sex offenders convicted of a first offense. On a second offense, injections of a drug which suppresses a male's sex drive by reducing testosterone levels would be mandatory.
Sentencing Law and Policy has a post discussing a new Georgia Supreme Court decision which examines the constitutionality of banishment. The Associated Press article is available here. The decision is available here. When I was doing research on my last article, I discovered that Georgia has some of the oddest law in terms of banishment. The state constitution expressly forbids interstate banishment. However, the Georgia Supreme Court had previously upheld banishment punishments from all but one county in the state.
On a related noted, Sentencing Law and Policy also notes that the Georgia Supreme Court will consider whether the state's mandatory life sentence for twice failing to register as a sex offender is constitutional. No other state has such a harsh sentence. Doug Berman also has some interesting thoughts on the proportionality in this case in light of Kennedy. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has more.
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