1-24-17 North Carolina:
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Convicted sex offenders are pushing back against North Carolina laws they contend deprive them of constitutional rights without protecting children.
Two anonymous sex offenders and a Raleigh-based national nonprofit that advocates for them filed a federal lawsuit on Monday challenging the state laws. It's part of an effort to trim sex registry laws that now require more than 800,000 convicts nationwide to register their names, addresses and photographs, perhaps for as long as they live.
A spokeswoman for state Attorney General Josh Stein did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday.
The offenders contend that North Carolina's law violates the U.S. Constitution by imposing added penalties after conviction and sentencing, for example by extending the years an offender must register. The lawsuit says they are unconstitutionally banned from practicing their religion by being forbidden from entering churches, and from petitioning their government representatives by orders to stay out of the General Assembly building.
The law also violates constitutional due process rights, by depicting all offenders as dangers to young children, and doesn't provide any way for offenders to challenge such a claim, the lawsuit said.
"In fact, the individual Plaintiffs in this case have already been found not to be a danger to children, yet they are subjected to a serious deprivation of liberty despite that determination," the lawsuit said.
Though most people would believe the registries are designed to protect the public against child molesters, states have expanded the crimes requiring recording to include sexually active teenagers and even public urination, said J.J. Prescott, a University of Michigan law professor who studies post-release sex offender laws.
Judges, meanwhile, have increasingly noted studies finding no public safety benefit many aspects of these registries, even as they cause collateral damage to the friends and family of offenders, he said.
"I think there has been a shift in the mood on these cases," Prescott said.
A spokeswoman for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children said no one was available to comment Tuesday. Messages were not returned by spokesmen for the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network and Parents for Megan's Law, named for the 1996 federal law that provided for public release of state sex offender registries.
The two offenders asked the court to remain unidentified, citing fears that they and their families risk harassment and abuse.
"John Doe 1" was convicted in 2009 of two counts of misdemeanor sexual battery against a 30-year-old woman and is not on probation or subject to any court-ordered restrictions, the lawsuit said. "John Doe 2" was convicted in 2011 of misdemeanor sexual battery after sex with a 16-year old girl he had coached, the lawsuit said.
Similar lawsuits challenging sex offender restrictions and registries have been filed in the past two years in Illinois, Wisconsin, Louisiana, Alabama, Colorado, Nevada and Idaho.
In August, the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that significant changes to Michigan's sex offender registry law cannot be applied retroactively to thousands of sex offenders because the revisions would unconstitutionally stiffen their punishments after their convictions.
In December, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia, deemed unconstitutional provisions of North Carolina's law prohibiting registered offenders from going to places where minors gather for educational, recreation or social programs, or being within 300 feet of locations where children are supervised.
The U.S. Supreme Court next month takes up a free-speech challenge to the North Carolina law that bans sex offenders from using Facebook and other social networking sites that minors can join. ..Source.. by Emery P. Dalesio
January 24, 2017
Lawsuit contends N Carolina sex offender law goes too far
September 16, 2013
District Attorney accused of violating sex offenders rights
9-16-2013 North Carolina:
WENTWORTH - Is the Rockingham County District Attorney violating the constitutional rights of sex offenders? Someone seems to think so.
A lawsuit, filed in August, claims Rockingham County District Attorney Phil Berger Jr., N.C. Governor Pat McCrory, N.C. Attorney General Roy Cooper and every other district attorney in the state did.
“It is a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality on registered sex offenders being banned at certain locations,” attorney for the plaintiff Glenn Gerding said.
Noelle Talley, spokesperson for the attorney general’s office, confirmed the lawsuit.
“Violent sex offenders and those who’ve harmed children have no business being at schools, daycares or playgrounds,” Cooper said in a statement through Talley. “We’ll fight to uphold this law to protect our kids.”
Talley said the lawsuit challenges the constitutionality of a North Carolina law that makes it illegal for certain convicted sex offenders to be within 300-feet of any place intended primarily for the use, care or supervision of minors.
Talley said the ban applies to sex offenders convicted of violent sex offenses or ones involving minors. It applies to locations including schools, children’s museums, child care centers and nurseries and playgrounds.
“The attorney general’s office will defend the state in the case, which was filed in United States District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina in late August,” Talley said.
Rockingham County District Attorney Phil Berger Jr. confirmed the lawsuit does name him as a defendant.
“I am being sued, with all other district attorneys, the governor and the attorney general, on N.C. General Statute NCGS-14-208.18, which prohibits sex offenders from being at certain places,” Berger said. “The injunction said the unconstitutional provision violates sex offender’s constitutional rights.”
Deputy Attorney General Hal Askins plans to represent Berger in the lawsuit. None of the attorneys on either side of the case were willing to comment on the lawsuit. ..Source.. by Danielle Battaglia Staff Writer
