Sex Crimes

Justice Department's SMART Case Law Update #26

As previously noted, the Justice Department's Office of Sex Offender Sentencing, Monitoring, Apprehending, Registering and Tracking (SMART) occasionally posts updates on case law developments in the sex offender realm. You can view the latest update here. Here are some of the cases from Update #26:

Delaware v. Fletcher, 2009 Del. LEXIS 250 (May 27, 2009)

The two petitioners in this consolidated case had been ordered to register based on juvenile adjudications for sex offenses.  Each successfully completed their periods of probation, and asked for an expungement of their convictions, and a termination of their juvenile registration requirement.  The Court held that their convictions could be expunged even though they had been required to register as sex offenders, and that once those convictions were expunged, they were no longer required to maintain their sex offender registration.
 
Tobar v. Kentucky, 2009 Ky. LEXIS 81 (May 21, 2009)
 
Petitioner had properly registered as a sex offender through a series of moves, but failed to notify Kentucky when he left a shelter and became homeless.  He was properly convicted of failure to comply with his sex offender registration requirements.
 
Doe v. California Department of Justice, 173 Cal. App. 4th 1095 (May 7, 2009)
 
Petitioners had successfully had their names removed from California’s public sex offender registry website via a special statutory procedure in 2005.  In 2006, the law was changed to require that they be posted on that public web site.  Their civil suit claiming equitable estoppel and ex post facto violations was dismissed.
 
U.S. v. Pomani, 2009 U.S. Dist. 44503 (D. S.D. March 11, 2009)

Pomani was adjudicated delinquent in federal court of an offense which occurred on tribal lands, namely, an offense similar to abusive sexual conduct (per the opinion, 18 U.S.C. 2241(c)).  The court held that juveniles adjudicated of this offense are required to register by SORNA, failing to take in to account that SORNA’s Final guidelines removed the registration Sex Offender Sentencing, Monitoring, Apprehending, Registering, and Tracking (SMART) Office U.S. Department of Justice/Office of Justice Programs requirement for juveniles adjudicated delinquent of 2241(c).  Having held that Pomani was required to register, the court affirmed his conviction.  
 
Miller v. McCormick, 605 F. Supp.2d 296 (D. Me. 2009)
 
Where petitioner had been admitted to the section 8 home ownership program, he could not be thereafter terminated because he was a lifetime registered sex offender.  There is a ban in place for admission to the program for such offenders, but should an offender somehow avoid the ban, they cannot be terminated.  

PA Court: Homeless Sex Offenders Not Subject to Megan's Law

How Appealing reports that the Superior Court of Pennsylvania has ruled that homeless convicted sex offenders are not subject to Megan's Law registration requirements. You can read the Court's opinion here. From PennLive.com:

The state appellate court found that William H. Wilgus should not have been prosecuted for violating the requirements to register his address with state police because he could not find a home after being released from prison in 2007.

The court said Wilgus unsuccessfully tried to find housing at several shelters and lived in alleys around Second and Market streets near the Dauphin County courthouse. He was charged with failing to register, and Judge Scott A. Evans initially convicted him and sentenced him to county prison. The judge then reconsidered and found that, because Wilgus didn't have a residence, he could not be required to register an address with authorities.

The prosecution appealed, but the state court agreed with Evans. The court said the point of the law is to inform neighbors, which makes it clear that, as drafted, the law cannot apply to transients.

"If a homeless person, as in Wilgus' case, drifts from park bench to bus stop to alleyway on a daily basis, he will never acquire a fixed abode within a permanent neighborhood," Judge John M. Cleland wrote for the three-judge panel.

Texas Gov Vetoes Sex Offender Registry Reform Bill

Texas Governor (and potential seceder) Rick Perry vetoed a bill which would have given young sex offenders the opportunity to have their names removed from the state sex offender registry. From the El Paso Times:

Aaron Jernigan had just started college at age 18 and was planning a career as a music teacher when he met a girl at a party and his whole world changed.

Now 25, Jernigan finished a four-year prison sentence instead of a four-year degree.

He is trying to get on with his life, but a year out of prison he still cannot find work and has had to move twice because he will forever carry with him the black mark of a registered sex offender.

"I was pretty much just a regular old kid in high school," he said. "And they kinda threw away the key on me."

Last week, Gov. Rick Perry vetoed a bill that would have given people such as Jernigan the chance to try to have their names removed from the Texas sex offender registry. Perry said the measure approved by legislators failed to protect young victims.

For Jernigan and other sex offenders like him, who got involved with young people close to their own age, the veto was a disappointment and a setback.

If Texas is seeking to comply with SORNA, I'm not sure that this outcome wasn't inevitable. 

H/T: Sentencing Law & Policy.

MO High Court Rules Federal Sex Offender Registration Trumps State

Sentencing Law & Policy has an interesting post discussing a new Missouri Supreme Court ruling, which raises some interesting Tenth Amendment issues. You may read the opinion here. From the Kansas City Star:

Thousands of Missouri sex offenders will have to put their names back on the state registry after a ruling Tuesday by the state Supreme Court.  The offenders — including roughly 600 in Jackson County alone — were wiped from the registry in late June 2006.  The court at the time said the Missouri Constitution didn’t allow for laws to be enforced retroactively, so only offenders convicted after the law took effect in January 1995 had to comply.

But the state judges unanimously ruled Tuesday that sex offenders must obey a federal law that went into effect about a month after that 2006 ruling. The federal Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act requires all offenders, regardless of when they were convicted, to register.  The federal law “imposes an independent obligation requiring respondents to register as sex offenders in Missouri,” the judges wrote.

Law enforcement authorities across the state, including Attorney General Chris Koster, applauded the ruling. Koster said the registry was designed to protect the community from offenders and the “court’s ruling supports that goal.”  Former Jackson County Sheriff Tom Phillips, a defendant in a lawsuit filed by sex offenders, said the intent of the law was for all offenders to register, not just some.  “I think that’s what people want,” Phillips said. “Hopefully now that will go into place. … If the laws weren’t clear as to who should and who shouldn’t register, this should clear that up.”

The court ruled Tuesday in the case of 10 convicted Jackson County sex offenders who argued that they were not required to register because of the Missouri Constitution’s protection against retrospective laws.

I was baffled by this case when it was at the intermediate appellate level and I'm even more confused now that the Missouri Supreme Court has signed off on the bizarre theory. Basically, a federal law creates federal penalties for a state law violation that can be prosecuted in state courts. That's assuming the court's statutory interpretation is correct (which I think is clearly wrong). Even accepting its interpretation, the result just seems unprecedented. I would be shocked if any other state high court follows Missouri's lead.

Sex Offender Cited for Two-Way Mirrors

A Colorado sex offender was recently cited for installing two two-way mirrors in a town tri-plex. From the Watch:

Darin Flora, 38, was cited with a summons for criminal attempt to commit unlawful sexual contact, a class 2 misdemeanor. He was not arrested and is set for a court date on July 13 at 8:30 a.m. at the Montrose County Justice Center.

Flora is a registered sex offender with the Montrose County Sheriff’s Office, which could “probably have some consequences” if he is found guilty, Lillard said.

The Montrose Sheriff’s Office said Flora served time in the county jail in 2003 after being convicted for three instances of being a peeping tom, peering into people’s homes without their knowledge. He has to re-register as a sex offender every year, said a department spokesman.

Lillard said Flora was a maintenance worker who was working as a subcontractor for Colorado West Property Management, which manages the property at 1001 North First St., where the mirrors were found, one looking into the apartment’s shower, the other looking into the bedroom.

The mirrors were found when Jim Waters and his two female roommates moved into the apartment last Thursday and were shocked to discover a two-way mirror in the bedroom and the shower.

I'm not sure if the story is being precise, but given the facts as described, it seems odd that he is charged with attempt to commit unlawful sexual conduct (especially given his past convictions for being a peeping tom). I wonder if the statute is unusually broad or if there is more to the story.

Vermont Given More Time to Comply With Adam Walsh Act

The federal government has provided Vermont, and several other states additional time to comply with provisions of the Adam Walsh Act. The Bennington Banner has more. From WCAX:

[The Act] requires Vermont expand its online sex offender registry, even though lawmakers passed legislation this session, expanding it to nearly 1,500 names. Federal law requires more names and more information. The original deadline was July.

But Senator Patrick Leahy argued Vermont, and many other states need more time to update the information, and the costs associated with it, just isn't in the budget for many states due to the recession.

No state is in compliance yet. No new deadline was set by the government.

Judge Kent Reports To Prison

Judge Samuel Kent entered a federal prison medical facility in Massachusetts beginning a 33-month sentence stemming from years of predatory sexual assaults on two federal courthouse employees.  From the Houston Chronicle:

Kent, the first federal judge to enter prison since 1991, has refused to immediately resign his post triggering rare House impeachment proceedings to remove him and cut off his $174,000 annual salary.

The House Judiciary Committee unanimously urged House action last week after graphic testimony about his sexual assaults from two victims, case manager Cathy McBroom, 50, and legal secretary Donna Wilkerson, 45.

Kent’s lawyer, Houston attorney Dick DeGuerin, told the Houston Chronicle on Monday that Congress was trying “to strip a United States district judge with eighteen years of honorable service of his hard-earned retirement and medical benefits because he's pled guilty to lying about his relationship with his long-time personal secretary.”

DeGuerin said lawmakers wanted to “publicly posture while spending more taxpayer money on the impeachment process than the cost of allowing Judge Kent his retirement and medical benefits.”

Terry W. Yates, who serves as Wilkerson’s attorney, said “while Sam Kent's imprisonment does bring some closure to Donna Wilkerson, it does not come with vindication, but instead, with a sense of sadness at the human tragedy that his life has become.”

H/T: Sentencing Law & Policy.

Justice Department's SMART Case Law Update #25

As previously noted, the Justice Department's Office of Sex Offender Sentencing, Monitoring, Apprehending, Registering and Tracking (SMART) occasionally posts updates on case law developments in the sex offender realm. You can view the latest update here. Here are some of the cases from Update #25:

Doe v. Department of Public Safety, 2009 Md. App. LEXIS 56 (May 12, 2009)

Doe challenged the conclusive presumption of dangerousness (and the attendant registration and notification requirements for a “sexually violent offender”) that flowed from a conviction for rape.  This presumption was permissible.  In addition, his privacy, due process, and equal protection challenges were rejected.
 
Wallace v. State, 2009 Ind. LEXIS 401 (April 30, 2009) (link)
 
Relying in part on the decision in Doe v. State, 189 P.3d 999 (Alaska 2008), the Indiana Supreme Court held that the state’s sex offender registration and notification scheme was punitive under the Mendoza-Martinez factors and, as such, application of its requirements to an offender convicted and sentenced prior to the initial passage of the law was unconstitutional.
 
Jensen v. State, 2009 Ind. LEXIS 400 (April 30, 2009) (link)
 
Where petitioner was convicted and sentenced in 2001, and the only changes to the sex
offender registration and notification scheme since that time could fairly be characterized as
‘civil and regulatory’ under the Mendoza-Martinez factors, retroactive application of those
amended provisions was not a violation of the Ex Post Facto clause.
 
Commonwealth v. McBride, 2009 Ky. LEXIS 52 (April 23, 2009)

McBride was convicted of a sex offense in Tennessee and registered as a sex offender
there.  He subsequently moved to Kentucky, and failed to register as a sex offender as required
by Kentucky law.  Even though he was not specifically notified of his registration obligations in
Kentucky, the Court held that failure to register was a strict liability offense, and that he had an
absolute duty to register as a sex offender once he became a resident of Kentucky.

SCOTUS Grants Cert in US v. Comstock

Just as Eugene Volokh predicted, this morning the U.S. Supreme Court granted certiorari in United States v. Comstock.  It really isn't a surprise at all given Roberts' unusual order in the case. The case (actually three cases) will test the constitutionality of a recent law which allows federal officials to order the indefinite confinement of individuals considered to be sexually dangerous. For more coverage, check out The Faculty Lounge, Sentencing Law & Policy, Volokh, Reuters, The Christian Science Monitor, The Associated Press, and Fox News. We have previously blogged about the Comstock decision here, here, here, and here. Baby permitting, I should have some more comments about the case this week.

House Impeaches Judge Kent

Former federal judge Samuel Kent was impeached in the House by a 389-0 vote. The Senate is expected to convene a trial in the next few weeks. You can view our earlier coverage of Judge Kent here and here. Sentencing Law & Policy, How Appealing, and the ABA Journal have more. You may view the actual impeachment resolution here. From the ABA Journal:

Not a single representative spoke on the imprisoned jurist's behalf, and the vote on the first of four articles of impeachment was 389-0, reports the Houston Chronicle. All four were swiftly approved in roll call votes that took only 30 minutes to complete.

The charges accuse the Texas-based judge of abusing his power by sexually assaulting two female court workers and lying about his conduct to authorities.

It is the first time since 1989 that a federal judge has been impeached. A speedy Senate trial is now expected, and could begin next month.

As detailed in earlier ABAJournal.com posts, the 59-year-old Kent pleaded guilty in February to obstruction of justice in a matter related to his admitted nonconsensual sexual conduct concerning the two court workers. He began serving his 33-month sentence on Monday, at a prison medical facility in Ayer, Mass.

“This is the first time a federal judge has been convicted of a felony, has reported to prison and has still not resigned from his office. This shows how deep Judge Kent’s audacity truly runs,” Goodlatte said.

Justice Department's SMART Case Law Update #24

As previously noted, the Justice Department's Office of Sex Offender Sentencing, Monitoring, Apprehending, Registering and Tracking (SMART) occasionally posts updates on case law developments in the sex offender realm. You can view the latest update here. Here are some of the cases from Update #24:

People v. Blair, 2009 N.Y.S.2d 890 (CCNY Albany, Feb. 18, 2009); People v. Oberlander, 2009 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 325 (Rockland Cty., Jan. 22, 2009)
 
Citing the decision in G.H. v. Township of Galloway, 951 A.2d 221 (N.J. App. 2008), held local residency restrictions invalid because they are preempted by the comprehensive and detailed State-level regulatory scheme regarding the registration of sex offenders.
 
People v. Knox, 2009 N.Y. LEXIS 16 (Ct. App. Feb. 17, 2009)

Knox and her co-petitioners had all been convicted of non-parental kidnapping of a minor.  Their due process challenge to being listed on the New York Sex Offender Registry was rejected.
 
U.S. v. Rose, 2009 CCA LEXIS 56 (Feb. 12, 2009)
 
Because the court concluded that Rose’s counsel “affirmatively misrepresented” that he would not have to register as a sex offender, and he pled guilty at least in part because of that misrepresentation, it constitutes ineffective assistance of counsel, and the findings of guilt were set aside.
 
Burchette v. Sex Offender Screening and Risk Assessment Cmte., 2008 Ark. LEXIS 551 (Oct. 23, 2008)
 
Arkansas’ sex offender registry scheme calls for a risk assessment to determine what level of community notification is required for an offender.  Burchette wanted to have a hearing (where he could testify, in person) before that determination was made.  The court concluded that because Burchette was interviewed as part of the assessment process, and could submit a written statement to the appellate committee, there was no due process violation.

The decision in Rose should be noted by criminal defense attorneys as plea deals in sex offense cases often revolve around whether the defendant will be required to register as a sex offender. Under the AWA, avoiding registration is increasingly hard to accomplish since courts seem to be taking a non-categorical view of what constitutes a "sex offense" under SORNA.

House Judiciary Committee Recommends Impeaching Judge Kent

ABA Journal reports that a House Judiciary Committee has referred four articles of impeachment against U.S. District Judge Samuel Kent based on allegations of sexual misconduct. Earlier Kent coverage is available here. From the ABA Journal:

A House Judiciary Committee task force has taken a first step that could lead to the impeachment of U.S. District Judge Sam Kent based on accusations of sexual misconduct and false statements about his actions.

Kent has been sentenced to 33 months in prison following his guilty plea for obstruction of justice.

The panel referred four articles of impeachment against the Galveston, Texas, judge to the full House Judiciary Committee, according to the Houston Chronicle and the Galveston County Daily News. The Chronicle describes the vote as “a hurry-up bid” to stop Kent from collecting a judicial paycheck before he reports to prison on June 15.

Kent has submitted his resignation—but it won’t take effect until June 1, 2010, a move designed to allow him to continue to collect his $174,000 annual salary and health benefits in the meantime.

Kent had entered the guilty plea to obstruction as part of a plea bargain in which he admitted to nonconsensual sexual contact with two court employees. The first two articles of impeachment refer to the sexual misconduct and the second two refer to false statements made to federal appeals court investigators.

Carnival Against Sexual Violence 68

I'm behind on a few events around the Web. To start, you can find the Carnival Against Sexual Violence 68 here and this is the legal section:

In Drug rape doesn't happen... oh wait posted at The Feminist Housewife, we get a discussion of the danger that comes from refusing to believe reports of drug-facilitated rape can be accurate.

In That Horrible Taxi Rapist Guy posted at Cruella-blog, we get a discussion about the conviction of cabdriver John Worboys and how this crime can impact those who may never know if they were a victim of this type of rapist.

In Burglary is Not a Non-Violent Crime, #2: A Lesson on DNA and Recidivism posted at Crime Victims Media Report, we get a discussion of what happens when certain crimes are dismissed or under-prosecuted simply because they are deemed non-violent.

In Speechless posted at The Curvature, we get a discussion of the rationalizing statements made by Josef Fritzl when he pleaded guilty to only some of the charges against him.

In Thanks for your input, Rudolf posted at Fuck Politeness, we get a discussion of justifying comments made by the attorney representing Josef Fritzl.

In Rape Not Necessarily a Crime in London - Until Last Year posted at Change Happens, we get a discussion about the improper classification of reports to the police by women who believed they might have been raped while unconscious as no crime.

In It's not "sex," it's rape posted at Feministing, we get a discussion of a case where an 18 year-old man was given only 6 months in jail for raping two women.

In Dismissive attitudes towards rape victims persist in the Met posted at The F-Word Blog, we get a discussion of rape complaints that were repeatedly filed as ‘Crime Related Incidents (CRIs)’ rather than as alleged criminal offences in six Metropolitan boroughs.

In Two wrongs = suspended sentence for rape posted at In a strange land, we get a discussion of a judge who treated an underage girl being "severely drunk" as a mitigating factor when it came to reducing the sentences of two men convicted of having underage sex with her.

In Thoughts on Castration for Sex Offenders posted at The Curvature, we get a discussion about debates raging in Europe over whether is ethical and/or smart to castrate sex offenders as a form of punishment or rehabilitation.

"Restorative Justice and Child Sex Offences: The Theory and the Practice"

Sentencing Law & Policy notes the availability of this interesting new article from the British Journal of Criminology.  You can read the article on SSRN here. From the abstract:

Restorative justice advocates have made a number of claims about the effectiveness of restorative justice in relation to sexual assault crimes, such as its ability to defuse power relations between the parties and heal the harm.  This article examines whether or not restorative justice is one of the ways forward in the difficult area of prosecuting child sex offences by re-analysing some of the data reported in Daly (2006) and comparing restorative justice with other reforms to the sexual assault trial.  It concludes that there is insufficient evidence to support the view that there are inherent benefits in the restorative justice process that provide victims of sexual assault with a superior form of justice.

La. Gov. Scraps Civil Commitment Program

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, the man who in March proposed chemical castration for sex offenders, has now scrapped a proposed post-prison civil commitment program as too expensive. From the Daily Reveille:

Lauren Mendes, a spokeswoman for the Department of Health and Hospitals, said the proposal was dead for the current legislative session.

"It is a concept that DHH and the governor's office do support and will revisit when it's more financially viable for Louisiana," she said.

Rep. Fred Mills' bill would have provided treatment for certain sex offenders after their release from prison. Mills said the program would require about $12 million over five years — for surveillance equipment, medication and psychiatric evaluations — an expensive price tag in a year of budget cuts.

Jindal is backing several bills this year to crack down on sex offenders, but Mills' was the most ambitious. The others are changes to existing law, such as lengthening certain prison terms for sex crimes.

"We know that Rep. Mills has worked hard on this bill and we support his work to find a more cost-effective way to pursue this legislation, especially as we face multiple-year budget challenges," said Kyle Plotkin, a spokesman for the governor's office.

Mills said initial estimates for the civil commitment program — $26,000 annually per sex offender — turned out to be low compared to a similar program in Texas. Most sex offenders in the program would also require the treatments for life, Mills said, compounding the future costs.

Mills told the House Appropriations Committee that he agreed with the governor's office and DHH that the bill is too costly.

As the California experience with lifetime real-time GPS monitoring has illustrated, the economic woes of the country might slow the rate at which different governments adopt more restrictions on sex offenders.

H/T: Sentencing Law & Policy.

Philly Mob Attacks "Person of Interest"

A mob in Philadelphia attacked a person of interest in connection with the alleged rape of an 11 year old girl after the police union offered a reward of $10,000 for bringing him in. The beating was captured on surveillance video at a local store. The man has not been charged. TalkLeft has more. From the article:

In connection with the alleged rape of an 11 year old girl, the police announced they were looking for a particular person of interest (not a suspect). Then the police union put out a reward of $10k for bringing him in by 5 PM.

Then, about an hour before the deadline, a mob grabbed the guy and beat him into critical condition (caught on surveillance video at a local bodega), such that a patrol unit had to rescue him from the mob. Then the head of the police union complimented the neighborhood for "really stepping up". And the mayor didn't even think to condemn this.

And the neighborhood gathered around the video at the bodega to cheer a replay of the mob beating.

The praise by the police union is more than a little worrisome. 

North Carolina Man Uses Craigslist To Have Wife Raped

People use Craigslist for all sorts of things, but one North Carolina man is accused of arranging the rape of his wife raped through the website. From CNN:

Police responded to the home at about 2:45 a.m. after receiving a 911 call indicating a male armed with a knife appeared in the couple's bedroom and sexually assaulted the man's wife, authorities said.

The man was present at the time of the assault, and two young children were in the home, but were unharmed and unaware of the incident, the police statement said.

"During the investigation, investigators interviewed the victim and her husband," the statement said. "Investigators became suspicious when they noticed there was no sign of forced entry to the home. Investigators also developed information that led them to note specific inconsistencies in the initial statement provided by [the man]."

But on Tuesday, police found that the man "had responded to at least two personal ads on Craigslist.com in an effort to arrange for someone to come to his home and have sex with his wife using some type of scare tactic."

While this fact pattern is extremely disturbing, it is not unprecedented. The story seems like a more modern version of a case that lots of students study in Criminal Law to understand derivative liabity between principals and accessories under the common law: Regina v. Cogan and Leak.

H/T: abyss2hope.

Judge Kent Resigns, Congress Prepares For His Impeachment

Disgraced federal judge Samuel Kent has informed President Obama that he will resign in June 2010.  Judge Kent, who is set to report to prison on June 15, admitted forcing sex acts upon his former secretary and case manager and was sentenced to 33 months in prison.  Sentencing Law & Policy notes that the House Judiciary Committee has placed a lot of interesting material online detailing the judge's misconduct. From the New York Times:

A convicted federal judge told the president Tuesday he would resign from the bench in June 2010, nearly a year after he enters prison for lying about sexually abusing two assistants.

U.S. District Judge Samuel Kent would draw a full salary of $174,000 a year and benefits until the resignation takes effect, said his lawyer, Dick DeGuerin. Kent decided on the delay so his wife, who has a brain tumor and other serious medical problems, could retain health benefits, DeGuerin said.

Kent, 59, is resigning to try and avoid the ''spectacle'' of an impeachment process by Congress, DeGuerin said. The House Judiciary Committee has scheduled a hearing for Wednesday, and both women he victimized are scheduled to speak.

''Judge Kent's own actions continue to prove that he is unworthy of public service,'' said U.S. Rep. Lamar Smith, R-San Antonio, the ranking Republican on the committee. ''This is an outrageous abuse of authority and defies the very principles of justice Judge Kent swore to uphold.''

According to the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, there is no procedure to reject a federal judge's resignation notice. The only way a federal judge can be removed is through impeachment.

Meanwhile, Congress is preparing to move forward with impeachment proceedings. Above the Law and Jonathan Turley have more.

Michigan Official Caught Having Sex on Public Sidewalk

According to police, a Michigan official was caught having sex with a woman (who was not his wife) on a public sidewalk. His defense? he claims he was urinating and not having sex. He has been sentenced to two years probation. From WLNS:

A married Oakland County official who police say was caught having sex with another woman on a sidewalk in the Detroit suburb of Novi has been sentenced to two years' probation.

District Judge Dennis Powers on Wednesday also ordered 56-year-old Kim Capello to perform 50 hours of community service and undergo intensive outpatient substance-abuse counseling.

Capello pleaded guilty to indecent exposure. The misdemeanor charge may be dismissed if he successfully completes his sentence.

Police say officers on April 18 found an unclothed man and woman apparently having sex against a wall.

The least surprising detail of the story was that "[t]he couple said they'd been drinking."

H/T: Sentencing Law & Policy.

"Ruling lets sex offenders volunteer in churches"

A federal judge in Georgia granted an injunction to a state law which would prohibit sex offenders from volunteering at church. You can read the order here. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has more. From the Gainesville Times:

A federal judge this week granted a preliminary injunction that overturns a provision of Georgia’s sex offender law. The provision imposed by state lawmakers prohibited registered sex offenders from volunteering in churches.

The Southern Center for Human Rights challenged the constitutionality of the restriction, saying it criminalized protected religious activity. The center has a pending lawsuit against Gov. Sonny Perdue which also challenges a restriction that would prevent sex offenders from living within 1,000 feet of a school bus stop. That restriction is also on hold, pending the outcome of the court case.

U.S. District Judge Clarence Cooper wrote in a ruling that church activity was recognized by state correction officials as a benefit for convicted criminals that helps reduce recidivism.

"Allowing plaintiffs to continue to participate in their faith communities will further public safety by providing support, stability and a grounded sense of right and wrong," Cooper wrote.

Cooper found the law banning sex offenders from volunteering in churches to be unconstitutionally vague, according to Sarah Geraghty, an attorney with the Southern Center of Human Rights.

"It was the only way to rule consistent with the Constitution," Geraghty said. " Certain people on the registry should not work with children in a church setting or elsewhere, but criminalizing the practice of religion does more harm than good, and that’s what this statute did," Geraghty said.

Geraghty said the law would make participating in Bible study a crime for sex offenders punishable by 10 to 30 years in prison.

The attorney said the ruling marks the sixth time that a provision of Georgia’s sex offender law was overturned, either by injunction or other means.

H/T: Sentencing Law & Policy.