60 months to life, for washing a girl's back in the shower when her parents were not home! Is something missing here, or are they nuts with their laws?
9-22-2009 Washington:
TACOMA, Wash. -- A Castle Rock man who was banished from Cowlitz County for molesting his 11-year-old next door neighbor has won a court fight - but he might not be too happy about it.
The Washington Court of Appeals agreed with Jack Irvin Sims that a lower court judge's banishment order infringed upon his right to travel. But the court also threw out the rest of his sentence, which included placement in a sex-offender treatment program in lieu of a 60 months-to-life prison term.
The case is going back to Cowlitz County Superior Court, and this time Sims could go to prison. At sentencing, the judge said the banishment was the reason he agreed to allow treatment instead of confinement.
Sims pleaded guilty to first-degree child molestation after admitting he went next door while the girl's parents weren't home and washed her back in the shower. ..Source.. by Seattlepi.com
September 22, 2009
WA- Wash. appeals court overturns convict's banishment
August 26, 2009
GA- Woman Who Challenged Sex Offender Laws Arrested
8-26-2009 Georgia:
Authorities in Columbia County have arrested a woman who challenged Georgia's sex offender laws last year.
A spokeswoman for Wendy Whitaker's attorneys says she was arrested and charged with failing to notify police of her new address after moving from a home that was central to her challenge.
Whitaker was convicted of a sex offense more than ten years ago. That means she has to live more than 1000 feet from a school or child care center, and also notify police when she moves, the same as violent rapists and pedophiles. Her attorneys say her punishment is extreme because her offense was a consensual sex act with a high school classmate when she was 17.
Whitaker had challenged the law, but a federal court judge last year ordered her to move out of her home in Harlem, which is near a church day care center. A judge in Columbia County then issued a temporary injunction, which allowed her to stay in her home while her attorneys sought to remove her from the sex offender registry.
Whitaker's attorneys say they don't know much about the arrest. They say they also don't know where she was living when she was arrested on Monday.
State lawmakers have since passed a law that protects teen-agers in cases such as Whitaker's from being placed on the state's sex offender registry. But that law only applies to people convicted after July, 2001, several years after Whitaker was charged.
Meanwhile, attorneys for another convicted sex offender are urging a federal judge to block a new Georgia law, which requires sex offenders to hand over Internet passwords, screen names and e-mail addresses to law enforcement officials.
Attorneys for Terrence White told the judge today the law is too broad and infringes on White’s constitutional rights. State attorneys say the new requirements give authorities another tool to keep registered sex offenders from striking again.
The law took effect in January and made Georgia one of a small band of states complying with guidelines in a 2006 federal law requiring authorities to track Internet addresses of sex offenders. But the state is among the first to take the extra step of forcing its 16,000 offenders to turn in their passwords as as well. ..Source.. by Mary Ellen Cheatham
June 11, 2009
TX- Teen gets 100 years for child sex abuse
This is a cruel and unusual sentence, while his crime are also wrong, two wrongs do not make it right. The teen is recognized as one who "has profound mental disabilities" and therefore is in the wrong court. Hopefully he will get a real appellate attorney to have this entire mess overturned and receive an appropriate sentence along with help for his mental disabilities. Shame on Texas for allowing this to happen.
6-11-2009 Texas:
PARIS, Texas (AP) — A teenager who has profound mental disabilities was sentenced to 100 years in prison after pleading guilty to charges in a sex abuse case involving his 6-year-old neighbor.
Aaron Hart, 18, of Paris, was arrested and charged after a neighbor found him fondling her stepson in September. The teen pleaded guilty to five counts, including aggravated sexual assault and indecency by contact, and a jury decided his punishment.
Lamar County Judge Eric Clifford decided to stack the sentences against Hart after jurors settled on two five-year terms and three 30-year terms, The Dallas Morning News reported Wednesday. The judge said neither he nor jurors liked the idea of prison for Hart but they felt there was no other option.
"In the state of Texas, there isn't a whole lot you can do with somebody like him," Clifford said.
Hart has an IQ of 47 and was diagnosed as mentally disabled as a child. He never learned to read or write and speaks unsteadily.
Despite being a target of bullies, he was courteous, well-behaved and earned money by doing chores for neighbors, supporters said. His parents say he'd never acted out sexually.
"He couldn't understand the seriousness of what he did," said his father, Robert Hart. "I never dreamed they would think about sending him to prison. When they said 100 years — it was terror, pure terror, to me."
Jurors said they sent the judge notes during deliberations in February, asking about alternatives to prison, but didn't get a clear answer. They believed the judge would order concurrent sentences, jurors said.
District Attorney Gary Young said he sympathized with Hart's situation but stands by his decision to prosecute on five counts. Prosecutors commonly pursue several charges for a single incident to see which the jury will support.
Young said a diversion program was not an option since the law doesn't allow that for serious felonies.
"I hope people will remember he committed a violent sexual crime against a little boy," he said.
Hart's appellate attorney, David Pearson, said the court-appointed doctor did the bare minimum to assess competency and ran tests geared for mental illness, not mental retardation.
He said an appeal will be filed. ..Source.. by USA Today
