Criminal Law

Connecticut, Iowa Newspapers Calling For Sex Offender Law Reform

Posted on December 05, 2008
One Connecticut newspaper is calling for the state's sex offender registry law to be fixed. A Public Defender has more. From The Hartford Courant:Connecticut's sex offender registry law needs to be updated. The state Department of Public Safety announced recently...

Carnival Against Sexual Violence 60

Posted on December 05, 2008
It's up at abyss2hope. Here is the legal section:In Round here we call that rape posted at Incertus, we get a discussion about a case where an armed police officer coerced a woman with a threat of arrest and who...

DOJ Announces Updated Sex Offender Website

Posted on December 04, 2008
The Department of Justice has issued a press release noting new improvements to the Dru Sjodin National Sex Offender website, which is now more "user-friendly" and makes it easier to find sex offenders. From the press release: The U.S. Department...

Tennessee Uses Sexual Servitude Statute for First Time

Posted on December 04, 2008
Two Tennessee men are being charged using a sexual servitude statute for the first time in the state's history. As Ann Bartow appropriately noted, "I wonder how many times they didn?t think forced prostitution was 'serious enough' to do so."...

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Ohio State Journal of Criminal Law

Posted on December 03, 2008
The new issue is out with a wonderful sex-crimes-focused lineup of articles. Wayne Logan, who does excellent work in this area put together a symposium of three very important articles.The first article is Virginia Davis and Kevin Washburn, Sex Offender...

British Father Rapes Daughters Over 27 Years

Posted on December 03, 2008
A British man has been accused of raping two of his daughters over 27 years, resulting in nineteen pregnancies and nine births. The case appears similar to an Austrian case, which was previously discussed here. From CNN:A British man was...

Parents Sue Over School's ID Scanning

Posted on December 03, 2008
A Texas couple is suing a local school district over a requirement that visitors' identification be checked against a sex offender database. Neither are sex offenders. Those who do not consent may be turned away. From the Houston Chronicle:A background...

Where Adultery is Still a Crime

Posted on December 02, 2008
There is a major scandal breaking in South Korea because of an actress invovled in criminal adultery. This article highlights the unusual history of South Korea's adultery laws:South Korean prosecutors on Wednesday demanded a popular actress who tried to overturn...

Preventive Detention

Posted on December 02, 2008
TChris at TalkLeft had a recent post about the use of preventive detention in America. The post primarily focused on those detained as part of the "War on Terror." However, TChris had this brief reference to sex offenders:The concept of...

Iowa May Scrap Residency Restrictions

Posted on December 01, 2008
Iowa lawmakers who are faced with a deadline to enact Adam Walsh Act-compliant laws might use the opportunity to eliminate the state's 2,000 foot residency restriction. From the Chicago Tribune: As Iowa faces a deadline to update its sex offender...

Strict North Carolina Sex Offender Laws Take Effect

Posted on December 01, 2008
North Carolina's new sex offender restrictions took effect today, requiring some offenders to remain on the state's registry for 30 years and requiring offenders to stay at least 300 feet from places where children might congregate. From the Winston-Salem Journal:Stricter...

Alabama Newspaper Calls For Overhaul of Sex Offender Laws

Posted on December 01, 2008
An Alabama newspaper is calling for a revision of the state's sex offender laws. Specifically the editorial calls for legislators to "[r]emove this cruel label from those who do not deserve it [and] [s]eparate the true sex offenders from those...

Happy Thanksgiving!

Posted on November 26, 2008
Sex Crimes is going on a holiday hiatus. Normal blogging will resume on Monday.

International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women

Posted on November 25, 2008
The United Nations has designated today, November 25, International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. A quick Google News search about the day yields some strange results. It seems like almost all of the media coverage of the...

Life Sentence For Failure To Register Cruel and Unusual in Georgia

Posted on November 25, 2008
The Georgia Supreme Court has ruled that a mandatory life sentence given to a sex offender two twice failing to register was unconstitutional. The Court ruled that the sentence violated the Eighth Amendment's prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment...

Louisiana Supreme Court Addresses Kennedy Re-Sentencing

Posted on November 25, 2008
In light of the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Kennedy v. Louisiana, the Louisiana Supreme Court has ordered that Mr. Kennedy be re-sentenced to "life imprisonment at hard labor without benefit of parole, probation or suspension of sentence." The Advocate...

On What Authority?

Posted on November 24, 2008
Typically, registry listing of sex offenders is controlled entirely by legislatures. The statutory definitions list who is required to register and the penalty for not registering is also defined by a criminal statute. However, in some states, in certain circumstances,...

Reasonableness Review in Child Porn Case

Posted on November 24, 2008
Berman continues his coverage of some of the oddities of child pornography sentencing. This time, he refers to the Sixth Circuit's reasonableness review in U.S. v. Blackie:The district court?s failure to comply with the requirements of 18 U.S.C. § 3553(c)(2)...

My New Article on SSRN

Posted on November 24, 2008
I've posted a draft of a shorter article of mine that will be out soon in the Federal Sentencing Reporter. The article builds upon the Commerce Clause discussion in my other forthcoming article, One of These Laws is not Like...

A Moment of Self Indulgence

Posted on November 24, 2008
I started working at John Marshall Law School a little over a year ago. I have found the experience to be immensely rewarding. I love teaching and have the freedom to research and write about topics that interest me. Above...

Another Long Child Pornography Sentence

Posted on November 24, 2008
Appellate Law & Practice has a post with a title ("Fifteen Year Mandatory Minimum for Guy in Wheelchair Trying to Produce Child Pr0n Okay") that pretty much encapsulates what a First Circuit opinion was about. This was S. Cotus's summary...

New Sex Offender Notification Article

Posted on November 22, 2008
Mike Connelly sends word of an interesting new article, Sex Offender Community Notification and Community Stratification. From the abstract:The study articulated findings from mapping and regression analyses that suggested a greater concentration of sex offenders in disadvantaged communities than in...

Sex Crimes Prosecutor Charged With Rape

Posted on November 22, 2008
A California prosecutor assigned to a sex crimes unit has been charged and arraigned for an alleged rape at the home of a fellow district attorney. From the ABA Journal:Michael Gressett, 51, who is a 20-year prosecutor assigned to the...

HLR Publishes Kennedy Case Note

Posted on November 21, 2008
Harvard Law Review's latest issue is now available online. The issue includes a nice case note on Kennedy v. Louisiana. From the summary:... Writing for the Court, Justice Kennedy held "that a death sentence for one who raped but did...

Utah: More Sex Offenders in Prison, Less Treatment Options

Posted on November 21, 2008
As the number of sex offenders in Utah prisons rise, the waiting list for treatment grows longer. From the Salt Lake Tribune:Members of the Judiciary Interim Committee reviewed a report presented by the Utah Commission on Criminal and Juvenile Justice...

Ask Pam Anderson

Posted on November 21, 2008
President-elect Obama may have enough on his plate, but that did not stop Pamela Anderson from offering him some advice on her official website and to other news outlets. The relevant excerpt reads:Dear Mr. Obama: My thoughts/hopeful ideas:...There are too...

Accused Necrophiliacs in Wisconsin Claim Innocence

Posted on November 20, 2008
Three Wisconsin men who are accused of necrophilia entered not guilty pleas. Recently, lawyers for the men sought and were denied a change of venue. From Pioneer Press:Three men accused of trying to dig up a grave in Cassville in...

Cal. Court: Registration Requirements are Punishment Under Apprendi

Posted on November 20, 2008
Sentencing Law & Policy posts about a new California Court of Appeal opinion which found that "the residency restrictions in California's sex offender registration law are 'punishment' for Apprendi purposes." You may view the opinion here. From the opinion: This...

Oregon Man Gets 6 Years For Attempted Sexual Abuse of a 12 Year Old

Posted on November 19, 2008
An Oregon man has received a 6 year prison sentence for attempted sexual abuse after sending sexual texts to a 12 year old girl. Her mother saw the messages and notified police who then arrested the man where he was...

Georgia's Sex Offender Law Called "Mindlessly Harsh"

Posted on November 19, 2008
Although it is not the first Georgia newspaper to recognize the problem, the Augusta Chronicle ran an excellent op-ed piece arguing against Georgia's one-size-fits-all approach to sex offender regulation. From the editorial:Should the law punish a motorist who is ticketed...

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