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Sex crimes often put criminal justice system to a tough test Date published: 8/23/2009
IF YOU THINK reshaping the na- As reformsexoffenderlaws.org has learned, the mere suggestion of reforming these laws unleashes a torrent of anger: Ease up on these gutter dwellers of society? If you can't throw away the key on these people, then you better keep track of them for the rest of their lives. In many cases, perhaps the majority, such a stigma is well-earned and rational. But what if it isn't? Under the banner of equal justice, which trumps all in this country, activists are looking hard at capital punishment, both broadly and on a case-by-case basis. Is it meted justly? Was the person who is about to take the Long Walk truly guilty, or did justice somehow miscarry? In the same vein, one's conviction of a sex crime and inclusion on the National Sex Offender Registry can be a kind of death sentence on anything like a normal life, a branding that alerts a community to your presence, governs your whereabouts, and limits your future possibilities. Let's set aside for a moment those who have willfully committed heinous acts of sexual abuse and violence. What of citizens who get caught up in an episode of blind fear and hysteria? (Remember those bogus accusations of molestation by child care workers a few years back.) What of those victimized by overzealous law enforcement, not necessarily because they actually did this particular crime, but because they were rounded up in a dragnet of past offenders? What if truly innocuous behavior is misconstrued? Finally, what if a suspect has no history of sexual deviance and is simply innocent? Given the proliferation of sexually oriented Web sites, and the ongoing cat-and-mouse game between e-mail purveyors of such Web sites and spam controls, it may be a rare computer that doesn't hold some inkling of unsavory content through no fault of the user. How about taking on the site administrators themselves? In what has become a familiar but questionable police and prosecutorial practice, a suspect is faced with charges that add up to a century behind bars, and he must choose between a trial and a plea bargain that reduces the possible sentence. That's a tough choice, especially for someone who's no angel but in this case is innocent, and whose lawyer urges a path of lesser risk. Justice means both getting the right guy and fitting the sentence to the crime. Guilty parties, justly convicted, deserve what they get. Those who are innocent deserve freedom--from jail and from the sex-pervert stigma. When it comes to justice, we have an obligation to get it right.
MEN WHO ARE NOT DANGEROUS DO NOT BELONG ON THE SEX-OFFENDER REGISTRY People on the registry(far too many innocent or not dangerous) have been murdered, committed suicide, had their homes set on fire, been evicted, lost their jobs,etc.Stephen Marshall killed two men who were on the sex-offender registry in Maine. Immediately after, he took his own life. One of the men Marshall killed, Joseph Gray, was on the registry for raping a child. The other, William Elliott, was listed because he'd slept with his girl
Few know how many people are on that registry who do not belong there. Until my own son was falsely accused years ago and took a plea (at the pressure of his lawyer), I would never have believed the insanity these laws have caused. The child who lied about my son grew up and finally told the truth to an ex-commander of homicide PG County,Md. turned national voice testing expert. She gave a very strong deposition. But my son is still on the registry. Baltimore's States' Attorney wasn't interested.
You may read rest of my post here
http://estrinyefim.newsvine.com/_news/2009/08/25/3191218-punishment-and-hysteria-justice-in-usa
I read this article written by Wendy Kaminer 'Porn, Punishment, and Hysteria'
http://www.secularhumanism.org/index.php?page=kaminer_27_4§ion=library
Morton Berger, a fifty-seven-year-old first offender and former high-school teacher, received twenty consecutive ten-year sentences for downloading twenty images of child porn. He was sentenced for 200 years and after that he should have 3 years of probation.
Then I remember... December, Year 2003. I was charged with the same offense as Berg, and was in
Stafford prosecutor (Eric Olsen) is one of the worst for charging teens with sex crimes and making these now adults spend the rest of their lives as a sex offender. Was told that until we stand up and let the courts know that this is unacceptable, most won’t say or do anything about it. Did you know peeing in public will cause you to be on the sex offenders list? Law’s need to change, some folks need to be put on this list, most do not! I for one, am against the register
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