civil rights challenges, lawsuit updates, and court rulings
By Larry . . . In these consolidated appeals, Commonwealth v. Lacombe and Commonwealth v. Witmayer, the Commonwealth (state) challenged orders of the Montgomery County Court of Common Pleas relieving appellees Claude Lacombe and Michael Witmayer of their duties to comply with Subchapter I of the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act. To achieve its dual goals of ensuring public…
Read More
By Timothy Eggert . . . The state’s criminal code completely bars child sex offenders from entering public parks, despite an exception written into a similar but separate part of the law, the Illinois Supreme Court ruled last week. The 5-2 majority held that the exception in Section 11-9.3(a-10) of the Illinois Criminal Code of 2012, which allows child sex offenders…
Read More
Originally published at parsol.org; reprinted in full with permission. By Josiah . . . The PA Supreme Court (SCOPA) filed their opinions on Com. v. George Torsilieri on June 16 regarding the constitutionality of PA’s Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA) Revised Subchapter H. Mr. Torsilieri and his attorneys argued that SORNA is based on outdated legislative findings and…
Read More
WRAL.com NC . . . A North Carolina Superior Court judge ruled that a coalition of civil rights groups are likely to win their claim that the incarceration of state prisoners during the COVID-19 pandemic is unconstitutional. The ACLU of North Carolina, Disability Rights North Carolina, Emancipate NC, Forward Justice, and the National Juvenile Justice Network filed the lawsuit in April…
Read More
Hearn v. Castilleja (Filed by Attorney Richard Gladden) Today, May 27, 2020, I and my clients Jack, Donnie and Jimmy, received a final judgment and opinion from the U.S. District Court in Austin which ruled against us, and in favor of the State of Texas, in our civil rights case challenging the constitutionality of lifetime registration. The Court’s decision is posted…
Read More
By Jerry B . . . In 2006, Defendant Zeno committed two delinquent acts that occurred when he was age 14 and 16. Because of the nature of the two acts, his case was transferred from juvenile court to adult criminal court where he pled guilty to rape of a child, sexual assault, criminal attempt (rape), criminal attempt (incest), and…
Read More
By Larry . . . The case of Doe v. Rausch contains a very thorough analysis regarding the history of sex offender registration in Tennessee and the developing body of case law in the Sixth Circuit which resulted in a favorable outcome for Doe. Due to the limited scope of the court’s ruling, I think that the chances of an…
Read More
By Michael Karlik . . . In a 4-3 decision, the Colorado Supreme Court has ruled that a criminal defendant was entitled to his request to de-register as a sex offender because he completed the terms of his probationary sentence and therefore no longer had a conviction under the law. A district court agreed with the prosecution, claiming that the…
Read More
By Larry . . . T.S. v. Pennsylvania State Police was just decided by the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania. The Commonwealth Court is the intermediate court of appeals which leaves open the door for the state to seek review in the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. This case has the potential to remove a significant number of people from the state’s sex…
Read More
By Robin . . . Congratulations to NARSOL’s attorney, Paul Dubbeling, who has successfully challenged the constitutionality of registering individuals who moved to North Carolina prior to December, 2006, with convictions from out-of-state. Federal District Court Judge Terrence Boyle signed an order yesterday (May 12) agreeing that these individuals (more than 1,000 of them) were placed on the N.C. registry…
Read More