Criminal Law

Sex Offender Cited for Two-Way Mirrors

Posted on July 06, 2009
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...

Vermont Given More Time to Comply With Adam Walsh Act

Posted on June 24, 2009
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...

Judge Kent Reports To Prison

Posted on June 24, 2009
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...

Justice Department's SMART Case Law Update #25

Posted on June 23, 2009
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...

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SCOTUS Grants Cert in US v. Comstock

Posted on June 22, 2009
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...

House Impeaches Judge Kent

Posted on June 20, 2009
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...

Justice Department's SMART Case Law Update #24

Posted on June 12, 2009
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...

House Judiciary Committee Recommends Impeaching Judge Kent

Posted on June 10, 2009
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...

Carnival Against Sexual Violence 68

Posted on June 10, 2009
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...

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

Posted on June 10, 2009
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...

La. Gov. Scraps Civil Commitment Program

Posted on June 09, 2009
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...

Philly Mob Attacks "Person of Interest"

Posted on June 05, 2009
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...

North Carolina Man Uses Craigslist To Have Wife Raped

Posted on June 04, 2009
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...

Judge Kent Resigns, Congress Prepares For His Impeachment

Posted on June 04, 2009
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...

Michigan Official Caught Having Sex on Public Sidewalk

Posted on June 04, 2009
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...

Alabama Judge Accused of Sexually Abusing, Paddling Inmates

Posted on June 02, 2009
As I try to catch up on the stories that occurred during my blogging break, some of the entries might be a little dated (starting with this one). A former Alabama judge has been arrested and accused of "sexually abusing...

Missouri Senate Votes to Apply Registry Law Retroactively

Posted on June 02, 2009
The Missouri Senate has voted to apply its sex offender registry law retroactively. From The Columbia Daily Tribune: The [Missouri] Supreme Court has ruled that the registry law does not apply to those people because the law took effect in...

New Study About Online Child Predators

Posted on June 02, 2009
A new study from the University of New Hampshire's Crimes Against Children Research Center (available here) reports a tremendous increase in online child predator arrests from sting operations, despite an overall decline in sex crimes against minors. From Ars Technica:...

"Ruling lets sex offenders volunteer in churches"

Posted on June 02, 2009
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...

NV Law Would Restrict Offenders From Living Within 1,000 Feet of Victims

Posted on June 02, 2009
Nevada lawmakers are considering a bill that would restrict sex offenders from living within 1,000 of their victims. From San Jose Mercury News: Nevada lawmakers debated a bill Tuesday that would provide additional protections to victims of sex offenders, by...

Iowa Gov. Signs New Sex Offender Residency Restriction

Posted on May 28, 2009
Iowa Gov. Chet Culver has signed new legislation prohibiting sex offenders from living within 2,000 feet from places where children gather. The new restriction is limited to certain sex offenders based of the severity of their crime. From the Chicago...

Arizona Moving Closer Towards AWA Compliance

Posted on May 28, 2009
The State of Arizona is moving closer towards Adam Walsh Act compliance. A state senate panel has approved new legislation to ensure that the state doesn't lose federal funds. From the Arizona Capitol Times: A Senate panel has approved legislation...

Is Sotomayor an Activist? Not by my Measure

Posted on May 26, 2009
This is a bit off topic, but I figure it will still be of interest because who doesn't care about a Supreme Court nominee? For many months, I have been working on an empirical project that measures judicial activism of...

Sotomayor's Criminal Law Record

Posted on May 26, 2009
As I mentioned in my previous post, I have quite a bit of data about Sotomayor's performance in 2008 as related to other appellate judges. I decided to break down some of her numbers as compared to her peers in...

Blog Update

Posted on May 24, 2009
After 49 very long days, my baby finally left the neonatal intensive care unit last Thursday and came home. Although I will surely be busy with fatherhood duties in the coming days, I plan to resume blogging this week. I...

Break in Blogging and Comstock

Posted on April 03, 2009
I just had my first child and he arrived ahead of schedule. He is doing very well in the neonatal intensive care, but until all of that is taken care of, I won't be blogging. Hopefully, the break won't be...

'Sexting' Roundup

Posted on April 01, 2009
As previously noted, a Pennsylvania DA has threatened to bring child porn charges about three teen girls who had provocative pictures of themselves on their cell phones. Their parent's later sued the DA (with the help of the local ACLU)...

AWA in Connecticut

Posted on March 31, 2009
As promised, a public defender is covering the AWA compliance bill in Connecticut. From the post: One of the more disturbing provisions being considered by the Lege in adopting the Adam Walsh Act here in Connecticut (and this provisions mirrors...

Student Post- Sooner State in a Bind

Posted on March 31, 2009
Oklahoma's age of consent has caused the state to be in a bit of a bind. The Oklahoman reported the problem on March 22, 2009. Twice in one week, officers from two different states searched for two different 16 year...

Massachusetts Bill Would Ban Elder Porn

Posted on March 30, 2009
Eugene Volokh has a post discussing a proposed Massachusetts bill who prohibit the creation and distribution of any sexual "visual material" depicting anyone 60 years old or over or someone with a "a permanent or long-term physical or mental impairment...

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