By Larry . . . NARSOL previously reported on the case of Brian Hope v. Commissioner of Indiana Department of Correction, which was favorably decided by a three-judge panel back in January. Unfortunately, the Seventh Circuit granted Indiana’s request for en banc review, and the full court has now turned that victory into a defeat. Trial Court History United States…
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by Douglas Ankney The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit upheld U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana’s opinion that found a provision of Indiana’s Sex Offender Registration Act (“SORA”) requiring registration of Plaintiffs who relocated to Indiana after SORA’s enactment violated their right to travel because the provision wouldn’t have required them to register if…
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By Larry . . . This is a synopsis of a case which is extremely important and will potentially have impact beyond Indiana. None of the challengers would have been required to register if they: (1) had not moved out of Indiana and returned after 2006; or (2) had not moved into Indiana after 2006. It was in 2006 that the…
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By Olivia Covington . . . Six men required to register as sex offenders after moving to Indiana can have their names removed from the sex offender registry, the 7th Circuit has held, finding that the state’s registration law discriminates between offenders who have consistently lived in Indiana and those who more recently moved into the state. A dissenting judge, however,…
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By Lorraine Bailey CHICAGO (CN) – The Seventh Circuit appeared likely Tuesday to overturn Indiana’s sex offender registration requirement, as it applies to people only required to register because they moved away from the state then moved back. “This registration requirement imposes a significant burden on those who move to Indiana, and not on people who live in Indiana continuously,”…
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By Larry . . . Maybe authorities will finally accept that the Fifth Amendment of the United States Constitution really protects individuals from compelled self-incrimination. At least it does in the state of Indiana according to the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. The court made it clear that the protection against self-incrimination even extends do those…
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By Marilyn Odendahl . . . Finding the disclosures provide information that any law enforcement agent “would love to have,” the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled Indiana’s requirement that sex offender inmates give detailed accounts of their past actions violates the Constitution’s protections against self-incrimination. Donald Lacy, a sex offender inmate in the Indiana Department of Correction, filed a…
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By Olivia Covington . . . Three convicted Boone County sex offenders can return to their church congregations after the Indiana Court of Appeals determined that churches are not considered “school property,” so state statute cannot prohibit the offenders from going to church, even when children are present. The appellate court handed down that decision Tuesday in John Doe 1, et al.,…
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By Fatima Hussein . . . A federal judge has ruled that Indiana’s mandated sex offender classes for prisoners who oppose them violates the constitutional right to be free from self-incrimination. The Sept. 28 ruling in the class-action lawsuit filed in the Southern District of Indiana will affect all convicted, incarcerated sex offenders who opt out of the Indiana Sex Offender Monitoring and Management, or SOMM, program. Three of the…
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By Olivia Covington . . . Shortly after the controversial Religious Freedom Restoration Act went into effect in Indiana in 2015, the unlawful entry by a serious sex offender statute, which prohibits certain sex offenders from accessing school property, also became law. Now, those two statutes are at odds with each other as the Indiana Court of Appeals decides whether…
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