Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Criminal Law Blogs -> Sentencing Law and Policy

Criminal Law

: Sentencing Law and Policy

GPS tracking confirms, but does prevent, murder of teen by sex offender

By Douglas A. Berman

Though GPS tracking might seem to hold great promise for regulating the activities of certain dangerous offenders upon their release from prison, this local story from Oregon highlights why this technology is not a panacea: A GPS tracking unit that a homeless sex offender is required to wear corroborates his story that he killed a 13-year-old girl in a Hazel Dell field, investigators said today. According to a probable cause affidavit filed in Clark County Superior Court, Darrin Eugene Sanford was being monitored by the state Department of Corrections, and the GPS unit shows he was in the field when Alycia Nipp was killed Saturday night. Detectives investigating the case identified Sanford, 30, based on descriptions provided by people who had seen him in the area...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on February 24, 2009 (boomark / email).