This Chicago Criminal attorney has posted here, here, and here about sex offenders. Imagine her surprise when she arrived to see this headline on the front of the local paper:
From the Ohio Dispatcher:
Justices give 26,000 Ohio sex offenders a break
That’s certainly an attention getter isn’t it?
The Ohio Supreme Court struck down sections of a state sex-offender law yesterday, changing the requirements for thousands of offenders who must register with their county sheriff.
Officials said those requirements, for 26,000 sex offenders statewide, will revert to what they were before Jan. 1, 2008, when Ohio's law - enacted in response to the federal Adam Walsh Act - took effect.
In some cases, offenders will have to register less often and for fewer years, and some no longer will have to notify their neighbors and nearby schools that they are sex offenders.
County sheriffs and state officials were reviewing the ruling yesterday to determine its effects, but Attorney General Richard Cordray called it a "narrowly tailored decision."
"The broad provisions of Ohio's Adam Walsh Act remain in place," Cordray said in a statement, noting that sex offenders convicted on or after Jan. 1, 2008, are unaffected.
Before that date, Ohio followed Megan's Law, which had three classifications: sexually oriented offenders, habitual sexual offenders and sexual predators. The classifications were set after a court hearing, and offenders were required to register their addresses and other details annually with their county sheriffs.
After Congress passed the Adam Walsh Act in 2006, Ohio enacted legislation assigning one of three tiers to sex offenders based on their crimes. The new tiers generally required offenders to register more frequently and for more years.
One of the Huron County offenders in the court case decided yesterday, for example, had been reclassified from a "sexually oriented offender" having to register once a year for 10 years to a "Tier III" offender having to register every 90 days for life, as well as having the community notified about him.
In its 5-1 ruling, the Ohio Supreme Court said having the state reclassify sex offenders was unconstitutional because it overturned final trial court decisions and thus violated the separation-of-powers doctrine.
Yes, there should be tiers. Can we agree that the “flasher” is not the same as the adult in a position of trust who uses that trust to molest kids?
This hopefully is just the beginning to the end of one of the most unconstitutional laws that have ever been passed in this country...think about what this country did with the Salem witch hunts, how we imprisoned inoccent Japaneese U.S. citizens during the war under the same reasoning applied with this Adam Walsh act....Look at what Nazi Germany did to the jews and then tell me how this law is no different then any of these terrible times recorded in history...and tell me how any American can just stand by and let the Government take away all of our freedoms like this....when I say all of our freedoms thats just what they are doing....once a government can take civil rights, constitutional rights or human rights away from one segiment of society like this its only a matter of time till its applied to us all. I for one didn't fight and shed my blood and have my brother killed in action to have the country I once loved to do this to any of us....its time we all wake up and say enough is enough
ReplyDeleteThe comment that was posted by the first person is 100% right. I remember back in the 70's when laws were past that were intended to give the police power to arrest in domestic violence situations even if neither party wanted to press charges. People voiced there concern about that with out a person wanting to press charges the police should not be given the power to arrest like this (they had no wittnesses had no complaintant) But the government assured the people that this law would be used sparringly and would only to apply to domestic violence cases . Well that law granted the police powers never before had and here we are 30 years later and its common place that that law has been expanded to cover any person the police want it to. Like the first post stated hopefully this is the begining of the end of this law. If not it may very well be the begining of the end to our constitution
ReplyDeleteI disagree. A flasher is just as dangerous. He begins his craft with flushing the kids then moves on to more haynous crimes. These folks need to stay behind the bars until they have gotten it all out of their systems. Only then can they come back into the real worlds. If they can prove that they have gotten rid of their evil inclanations, we might welcome them back into the family of mankind and offer them Salvaition.
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