Writing the State Governments is something that many should do. Here is one such letter I have written.
These laws while having good intentions are not much good in the legal sense. Should these laws be challenged in court correctly they would fail on many counts. I have been working on this issue for some time now and have devoted a site to them. I have found only 2 solutions to this problem however, neither of them are favorable to the state. Take for example the laws in chapter 566 that deal with limitations on where certain sex offenders may live or be. In the following I don’t argue the Constitutionality of these laws as it would be more difficult to prove so I stick to existing State laws and Supreme Court rulings to provide the evidence needed. Only after these point are clear can Constitutionality be proven.
In Section 566.147 the law would only be applicable to those that are not registered and by Missouri law be required to be registered and would exclude those that are registered and those that are required to be registered beyond State law by the Federal law and are not registered. This can be demonstrated by several Supreme Court rulings. This is also due to the fact that being a “Registered Sex Offender” is civil and not criminal by convicting a registered sex offender of this crime makes the being a registered sex offender criminal. This would make the registration requirement a criminal act or more precisely by registering as a sex offender one confesses to being a criminal.
The results of this should be clear at this point. This law would apply to only those that are required to register under Missouri law as of Jan. 1, 1995, are not registered or have absconded, and are in violation to the law after the effective date. This law would then only affect a very small portion of the population and may require some research to find out if it would be justifiable to rewrite and keep this law. This is the easy one to fix the next one would be far more costly and would affect the above issue to the point of making it unjustifiable.
Also in Section 566.147 there is the matter of distance and this is where we encounter the most problems. First off there are no standards set that would ensure that measurements can be repeatable. This causes accuracy problems that can only be fixed by setting Nationwide standards through the help of NIST. In addition there are a number of differing methods that can be used and no two would produce the same results. There is also a measurable difference between part 1(2) and part 2. As this law requires that being in violation of the law is charged as a felony the point of accuracy should be determinable within a measurable amount. The wording in the law uses “within” as a determining factor and has been excluded in the courts. The distance is measured from property line to property line and does not include the property as being “within” the distance as measured. The next is the violation of using unqualified persons for measuring the distance and ignoring State law that requires the court to use the County Surveyors measurement as being recognized. This could result in law suits being filed by the Surveyor.
This is the short version of the information I make available on my website. I have gone into great detail on some of these and other issues with these laws. Right now I am only getting a few thousand hits a month but it has been growing over time. If you decide to research this further my site is myredball.com and the following links will take you to the issues I have discussed here.
http://www.myredball.com/due_process/DefiningTheSexOffender This is the contents
http://www.myredball.com/due_process/DefiningTheSexOffenderChapter3ResidencyRestrictions This goes into great detail for measurement issues. Use the link on the bottom right of the page for the next page and further info.
http://www.myredball.com/due_process/DefiningTheSexOffenderChapter2SORNAPerspective This explains the basics. Use the link on the bottom right of the page for further info.
I am not sure what you will do with this information but I hope you will write up a way to resolve these issues before a court resolves them. My recommendation is to have these laws repealed before any damage can be done. I recommend this for good reason. Should all of the issues I discuss on my site make it to a court all of the States with similar laws would be affected by the outcome. Some of these states would pay dearly for this. Georgia for one has all but forced registered sex offenders out of the state. If Missouri gets out of the issue before it comes to ruin our state can avoid most of the problems other states will have.
Sign The Petition To Start Our Campaign To Attempt To Reform South Caroina Sex Offense Laws
ReplyDeleteSouth 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.