Sex Offender Registration Requirements to be Challenged
December 20, 2012
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Larry Neely
RSOL Legal Committee
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Larry Neely
RSOL Legal Committee
Reform Sex Offender Laws Inc. (RSOL) plans to soon challenge sections of Senate Bill 1183 (Pennsylvania’s new sex offender registration requirements) on multiple constitutional grounds.
Today marks the beginning of enforcement of a controversial new state law that purports to protect citizens from registered sex offenders. RSOL’s executive director Brenda Jones stated, “It is disappointing that Pennsylvania’s lawmakers chose to ignore the lessons learned when Ohio proceeded down this same disastrous path more than five years ago.” Ohio was the first state to be deemed AWA complaint, but the courts subsequently have found several aspects of Ohio’s new law unconstitutional. After expending millions of taxpayer dollars defending an unconstitutional law, Ohio was forced to revert back to the old registration system for those sentenced prior to the new law’s enactment.
Jones stated that provisions of Pennsylvania’s new law “transform what is supposed to be a non-punitive, civil regulatory measure into a form of lifetime probationary supervision for most persons on the registry,” which RSOL believes to be blatantly unconstitutional. “And further,” she continues, “all individuals on Pennsylvania’s registry will see their registration periods dramatically increase, with the majority becoming life-timers. This,” she emphasized, “is a violation of the ex post facto clause.”
Jones stated that although the new law was touted by its supporters as necessary to bring Pennsylvania into compliance with the federal Adam Walsh Act (AWA), “It does little if anything to improve public safety, and any marginal benefit achieved is at the expense of trampling over our most cherished constitutional protections.”
Jones concluded her remarks by saying, “It is most unfortunate that RSOL must undertake such a challenge, but make no mistake about it; we cannot and will not stand by while public policymakers shred the constitution and disregard their oaths of office.”
RSOL promotes the elimination of sexual abuse and the preservation of civil rights for all individuals through the use of effective legislation based on empirical research. We envision sexual offense laws based on equal justice and respect for the dignity of all people, protection from retroactively applied punishment, and the establishment of fact-based laws and policies which protect our communities.
Today marks the beginning of enforcement of a controversial new state law that purports to protect citizens from registered sex offenders. RSOL’s executive director Brenda Jones stated, “It is disappointing that Pennsylvania’s lawmakers chose to ignore the lessons learned when Ohio proceeded down this same disastrous path more than five years ago.” Ohio was the first state to be deemed AWA complaint, but the courts subsequently have found several aspects of Ohio’s new law unconstitutional. After expending millions of taxpayer dollars defending an unconstitutional law, Ohio was forced to revert back to the old registration system for those sentenced prior to the new law’s enactment.
Jones stated that provisions of Pennsylvania’s new law “transform what is supposed to be a non-punitive, civil regulatory measure into a form of lifetime probationary supervision for most persons on the registry,” which RSOL believes to be blatantly unconstitutional. “And further,” she continues, “all individuals on Pennsylvania’s registry will see their registration periods dramatically increase, with the majority becoming life-timers. This,” she emphasized, “is a violation of the ex post facto clause.”
Jones stated that although the new law was touted by its supporters as necessary to bring Pennsylvania into compliance with the federal Adam Walsh Act (AWA), “It does little if anything to improve public safety, and any marginal benefit achieved is at the expense of trampling over our most cherished constitutional protections.”
Jones concluded her remarks by saying, “It is most unfortunate that RSOL must undertake such a challenge, but make no mistake about it; we cannot and will not stand by while public policymakers shred the constitution and disregard their oaths of office.”
RSOL promotes the elimination of sexual abuse and the preservation of civil rights for all individuals through the use of effective legislation based on empirical research. We envision sexual offense laws based on equal justice and respect for the dignity of all people, protection from retroactively applied punishment, and the establishment of fact-based laws and policies which protect our communities.
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Once upon a time, Uncle Sam decided he wanted a data bank full of information on ex-felons. The problem was that he had no data to fill his bank. It would have been very expensive to contract with private enterprise to collect and supply the needed data. That would have been a tremendous financial burden on law enforcement as well. So, Uncle Sam decided to impose a duty of self-reporting on each ex-felon, at the ex-felon's own expense. This worked well but Uncle Sam was not happy. He wanted more information and more power. At the suggestion of special interests behind some celebrity elite, SORNA was enacted to require sex offenders to routinely supply Uncle Sam with verified data, current within a [48] hour margin of error, in perpetuity. The data was published on Uncle Sam's website and the public clamored. Private enterprise scraped the data from the website and redistributed it for profit making purposes. Law enforcement rejoiced. All were happy except for the exploited offenders, some of whom died in the service of good ol' Uncle Sam. This all occurred in spite of the 13th Amendment's prohibition of involuntary servitude and the 20 year penalty for forced labor in the Federal Criminal Code. If you don't think the service ex-felons perform for Uncle Sam is labor, I suggest that you call up and order a pizza. When the pizza delivery boy gets there, debate the question with him (or her). If you remain insensitive to basic human rights at issue, I can only hope you take the pizza without paying for it and the police explain it to you while arrested for kidnapping and robbery.
ReplyDeleteEvery elected and appointed official who sponsored, supported, upheld and enforces SORNA in disregard of the 13th Amendment, the Federal Criminal Code and the Forced Labour Convention of 1930 should be impeached, removed from office, tried, and imprisoned upon conviction of kidnapping, forced labor, robbery and … felony murder.
Stop the Exploitation. Demand Restitution NOW!
http://americanfederationofregistrants.blogspot.com/