GA- Sex-registry suit can go on

3-31-2009 Georgia:

Judge allows class action: Ruling strikes down ban on church work by sex offenders.

A federal judge on Monday banned the state from enforcing a provision of Georgia’s tough sex-offender law that prohibits offenders from volunteering at churches.

Lawyers representing the plaintiffs presented evidence from ministers and others who work with sex offenders about the restorative powers of faith and volunteering in faith communities, U.S. District Judge Clarence Cooper said.

“Allowing plaintiffs to continue to participate in their faith communities will further public safety by providing support, stability and a grounded sense of right and wrong,” Cooper wrote.

Separately, Cooper rejected attempts by the state to throw out the class-action lawsuit on grounds it is unmanageable and impractical.

Cooper allowed the suit filed on behalf of all 16,000 people on Georgia’s sex-offender registry to proceed on claims the law is too vague and broad.

Cooper also broke the suit down into various “subclasses” and allowed those claims to proceed. These subclasses include offenders seeking to overturn a provision banning them from living within 1,000 feet of designated school bus stops; offenders who want to volunteer or want to work at places of worship; and offenders who were convicted before the law’s passage on July 1, 2006, but are on the sex-offender registry.

Cooper declined to allow claims to be pursued further by subclasses of offenders who are renters or those who are elderly or disabled.

Georgia’s sex-offender law is one of the toughest in the nation. It prohibits most offenders from living or working within 1,000 feet of places children congregate, such as schools, parks, swimming pools and churches.

But the law has suffered a number of legal setbacks, including court rulings granting relief to offenders who own homes, who are homeless and who got mandatory life sentences for failing to register a second time.

Russ Willard, a spokesman for Attorney General Thurbert Baker, said the office was discussing the impact of Cooper’s injunction with its clients.

Gerry Weber, a lawyer with the Southern Center for Human Rights, which filed suit on behalf of the plaintiffs, applauded the ruling.

“Georgia’s sex-offender law has suffered more legal setbacks than any such law anywhere in the country,” he said.

“This order should send a clear message to the General Assembly that it’s time to fix this law,” Weber said.

The Senate recently approved legislation that seeks to change a number of provisions.

One would allow sex offenders to volunteer at places of worship, provided they are not with unsupervised minors.

But a House version of the bill does not include that provision. ..News Source.. by Bill Rankin, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution