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Sign The Petition To Start Our Campaign To Attempt To Reform South Caroina Sex Offense Laws

South Carolina State Senate: Reform Sex Offender Laws In South Carolina - Sign the Petition! https://www.change.org/p/south-carolina-state...

Tuesday, March 1, 2016

Justice's Weigh Whether Sex Offenders Should Be Tracked World Wide

SORNA Jurisdiction Challenge
Members of the Supreme Court on Tuesday appeared skeptical of the federal government’s argument that a registered sex offender should be required to notify authorities when moving to another country.  
Justice Anthony Kennedy, who was known as the court’s swing vote before the death of Justice Antonin Scalia last month, noted that the defendant in the case moved to a country not covered under the Sex Offender Registration and Notifications Act (SORNA).

The law requires sex offenders to inform “at least one jurisdiction involved” of any change of address.
“The Philippines is not a jurisdiction under SORNA," Kennedy said.

The case, Nichols v. United States, focuses on Lester Nichols, a convicted sex offender who moved from Kansas to the Philippines in November 2012, eight months after he was released from prison. A month later, he was arrested and deported back to the U.S. for failing to update his sex offender registry. 

Curtis Gannon, assistant to the solicitor general at the Department of Justice, argued on behalf of the government that Nichols was required to notify Kansas of his change of address within three business days of his move because Kansas was “an involved jurisdiction.”

Several of the justices, including Elena Kagan, Stephen Breyer and Chief Justice John Roberts, grappled Tuesday with the language in the statute that defines an involved jurisdiction.
Roberts said the statute is an “awful lot to ask a layperson to parse” in order to avoid the maximum 10-year sentence for violating SORNA.
In trying to understand the statute, Breyer questioned whether Nichols would have had to notify Kansas if he had been living in the Philippines for 15 years and then moved to Thailand 
“Why not Kansas?” he asked. “That was a jurisdiction that was involved.”
Gannon said Kansas would only remain involved if the national registry said Nichols still lived in Kansas. 
Kagan wondered why the U.S. is even bothering to extradite sex offenders back to the U.S. from other countries if they are only required to say they are leaving the state, not where they are going in the world.
She said it seems like the attitude would be “good luck, good riddance.” 
Justice Clarence Thomas, who asked questions for the first time in 10 years during a gun rights case on Monday, remained silent for Tuesday’s arguments. 

http://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/271290-justices-weigh-whether-sex-offenders-should-be-tracked-worldwide#.VtYN1k8Ct8M.twitter

Sunday, February 28, 2016

Sign The Petition To Start Our Campaign To Attempt To Reform South Caroina Sex Offense Laws

South Carolina State Senate: Reform Sex Offender Laws In South Carolina - Sign the Petition!

https://www.change.org/p/south-carolina-state-senate-reform-sex-offender-laws-in-south-carolina?recruiter=497744666&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=share_twitter_responsive via @Change

We are not "pedophile sympathizers" and do not condone abuse in any form! We are ex-offenders, parents, children, husbands, wives & friends of those forced to wear the modern day Scarlet Letter!
The purpose of this petition is to speak out to encourage the reform of the South Carolina Sex Offender laws. To help ex-offenders and their families be treated fairly with the laws that affect them, and to hopefully encourage our law makers who we elected  to remember the slavery and Nazi aspects of the political hysteria that sparked an draconian epidemic. These ineffective measures that continues to increase punishment but does not prevent OR DETER criminal activity.
  1.                   That pursuant to South Carolina Code Annotated Section 23-3-430 (D), upon conviction of an offense not specifically identified, the presiding judge may order registration if good cause is shown by the solicitor.
  2.                   That the State of South Carolina, in adopting an across the board lifetime registration requirement, has not narrowly tailored the registration requirement to serve a compelling state interest.
  3.                   That the State of South Carolina, in adopting an across the board lifetime registration requirement, has established no rational basis reasonably tied to a governmental interest in exceeding SORNA’s tiered registration requirement which allows for cessation of registration for certain offenders.
  4.                   That the State of South Carolina, in adopting an across the board lifetime registration requirement, has established no rational basis reasonably tied to a governmental interest in requiring persons convicted of ABHAN, a non-specifically identified registration offense, to suffer a lifetime registration requirement.
  5.                   That the State of South Carolina, in adopting an across the board lifetime registration requirement, has established no rational basis for treating those convicted of ABHAN and Criminal Sexual Conduct 1st Degree identically, while SORNA has found justification in treating them differently
  6.                   That the State of South Carolina has established no rational basis reasonably tied to a governmental interest in lifetime registration without judicial review.
South Carolina is one of the Few States With Serve Sex Offender Laws
South Carolina severity level is one of seven states with the most severe sex offender laws in the U.S.
In her 2015 book Protecting Our Kids? How Sex Offender Laws Are Failing Us, criminologist Emily Horowitz argues that our draconian sex offender laws "promote fear, destroy lives, and fail to protect children." With all of these stories circulating in the news, though, I've been wondering -- what's the best way to reform the sex offender registry?

We humbly pray about the growing national hysteria concerning sex offenders and deviant sexual behavior. Specific strategies include promoting research, treatment, and common sense legislation of real protection of children from sexual harm be coupled with civil liberties for all people concerned, including alleged sex offenders.
Only amending existing laws that violate the rights of offenders and do nothing to protect children, especially those that humiliate and shame offenders, those that criminalize consensual sex among adolescents and young adults, those that restrict the residences and employment of offenders, and those that continue to incarcerate offenders who have completed their sentences under so-called civil commitment. We need our state to consider working with such amendments to protect all people and citizens and also to oppose new,  federally enacted draconian legislation.

Letter to
South Carolina State Senate
State Senator Darrell Jackson
State Senator Joel Lourie
and 4 others
State Senator Katrina Shealy
State Senator Ronnie Cromer
Senator Tim Scott
State Senator Vincent Sheheen
Reform Sex Offender Laws In South Carolina