NationStates Jolt Archive

From our friends in Georgia again:

http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/stories//2009/03/15/sex_offender_law_georgia.html

Georgia’s sex offender registry has a peculiar twist: There are a growing number of people on the list who did not commit a sex offense.

<snip what everyone knows>

But the law applies to anyone convicted of kidnapping or false imprisonment of a minor, regardless if a sexual act was committed.

At 17, Darnelle Harvey took part in the robbery of a Dairy Queen in Chamblee. Brandishing a gun, he ordered a 16-year-old to lie down as the holdup progressed. This got him a false imprisonment conviction, and because the victim was under 18, Harvey became a sex offender.

Now 36, he acknowledges his mistakes.

“I’m no saint, I know that,” Harvey said recently. “What I did was bad, stupid, and I spent years in prison regretting it every day. But I’m not a sex offender.”

Some legislators agree.

The law was drawn so broadly that it has triggered another: the law of unintended consequences, Sen. Seth Harp (R-Midland)

said.

“We’re trying to clarify it,” he said. “We need to concentrate solely on those who really are sex offenders so we know where they are to keep them away from children.”

Harp’s legislation amends a number of provisions, including requiring those convicted of kidnapping or falsely imprisoning a minor to be on the registry only when their crimes involve a sex offense. The bill recently passed the Senate by a 52-2 vote. It is now before the House.

Rep. David Ralston (R-Blue Ridge) said lawmakers initially passed the provision with the belief that anyone convicted of committing crimes of force and violence against minors should also receive the same fate as sex offenders. But Ralston said last week he was open to revisiting the issue.

The sex offender law has encountered legal setbacks. The Georgia Supreme Court has struck down certain provisions, including mandatory life sentences for offenders who failed to register a second time.

The kidnapping and false imprisonment provisions also face a court challenge.

A Fulton County judge recently heard arguments on behalf of a man convicted of false imprisonment during a May 2000 drug robbery in Gwinnett County.

“Doesn’t it sound screwy what’s going on here?” Superior Court Judge Jerry Baxter asked, when told Jake Rainer is a registered sex offender who committed no sex crime.

For Harvey, the distinction is not a small one.

When convicts serve their sentences, their debts are paid, and they are generally free to live and work wherever they can find shelter and employment.

But the sex offender registry is a kind of life sentence. Those on it cannot live or work within 1,000 feet of places children congregate, such as parks, schools, rec centers and swimming pools.

Harvey must now report every three days to the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office and provide a location where he stays, a requirement of those who are homeless, as he is.

His journey to the sex offender registry began with the 1990 robbery of the DQ.

Before the restaurant closed that night, Harvey and his co-defendant, Eddie Montgomery, waited nearby in the woods, watching.

Harvey told Montgomery he didn’t want to go through with it. But Montgomery pointed his gun at Harvey and said he had no choice, Montgomery said during his guilty plea. Harvey complied.

A 16-year-old boy, the first to emerge from the DQ, was ordered to lie down — the basis of the false imprisonment charge. When the others walked out, Harvey and Montgomery robbed them at gunpoint and fled with the cash. They were arrested two weeks later.

Harvey pleaded guilty and spent seven years in prison.

Harvey learned welding after getting out of prison, but he could not accept a job as a welder last year because he had to leave the state. He recently got a job doing repair work at Big Boot Ranch in Ellenwood, but he had to leave that because the ranch hosts parties for children.

“He wanted to work, wanted to move his life along,” ranch owner John Sturdivant said.

“If you can’t work, you can’t take care of yourself. When you can’t do that, it might lead to robbing or stealing. What’s left?”

About 90 people are on the sex offender registry for false imprisonment convictions and another 90 are on it for kidnapping.

Prison records indicate at least 33 of those offenders committed a sex crime when they kidnapped or falsely imprisoned their victims.

Donnie Lee Boone is not one of them.

In 1994, Boone and two others held up an Augusta restaurant. Because the men moved four employees, one a 17-year-old, from one part of the restaurant to another, they were convicted of kidnapping.

After serving nearly 12 years in prison, Boone was granted parole in 2006. But the parole board refused to release him because he could not meet the sex-offender residency requirements.

The board said he could not move in with his mother because her home was within 1,000 feet of a park, a church and a rec center. In 2008, Mica Doctoroff, an investigator for the Southern Center for Human Rights, determined that the church and park were 2,000 feet from the woman’s home. The rec center didn’t exist.

In April 2008, Boone was released — two years after being granted parole — and moved in with his mother.

Boone, 40, is now taking online computer college classes to earn an associate’s degree in business.

“I had to serve additional time for being a sex offender when I didn’t commit a sex crime,” he said. “It’s still unbelievable to us.”

I'm glad they're taking steps to fix this. If we keep throwing every Tom, Dick, and Harry onto the sex offender registry, it won't even mean anything anymore. The purpose of such lists is to protect the public by giving them knowledge of those who have committed sex crimes and are likely to repeat them.

Ok, NSG. I have reported.

Where's Burke when you need him?

Personally, I think the idea of a sex offender registry is ridiculous to begin with. Its legislative reactionism at its finest.

I'm glad they're taking steps to fix this.
I'm not glad it happens in the first place. The sex offender paranoia is ridiculous. And I'm saying that as a fully certified, Internet-diagnosed paranoid.


If we keep throwing every Tom, Dick, and Harry onto the sex offender registry, it won't even mean anything anymore. The purpose of such lists is to protect the public by giving them knowledge of those who have committed sex crimes and are likely to repeat them.
I actually had a T-shirt saying "Registered Sex Offender".

Pedobear and a License To Rape below.

Don't wear it anymore as I'm a bit too old for this joke, and people today are scared so shitless that they might actually take it seriously.

Next time a minor turns up during a robbery, kill him/her. That's not a sex offense. ;)

Georgia isn't alone. Maryland has that, too.

Next time a minor turns up during a robbery, kill him/her. That's not a sex offense. ;)

Unless of course the prosecutor goes for a Freudian approach and says the act of shooting or stabbing the boy could be interpreted as a sexual assault.

Unless of course the prosecutor goes for a Freudian approach and says the act of shooting or stabbing the boy could be interpreted as a sexual assault.

all forms of penetration must be avoided... poisoning is the only way. (since Strangling can be defined as a 'very tight hug'.

so is there any particular reason why getting put on a sex offender list should be done through the sweeping generalities of a law, rather than decided on an individual basis by judges with people able to appeal their listing to some other body? isn't this the more or less obvious solution, if you are going to have sex offender lists at all?

all forms of penetration must be avoided... poisoning is the only way. (since Strangling can be defined as a 'very tight hug'.

"Your honor, as these reports show, the defendant introduced a foreign substance into the boy's orifice..."

I bet they are kicking themselves for not molesting those minors now :tongue:

all forms of penetration must be avoided... poisoning is the only way. (since Strangling can be defined as a 'very tight hug'.
Involves penetration too.

You have to burn them.

Yep. This is why the legislature should define the crimes and the judiciary should define the punishments. So what if every now and again you get dispropportionate sentencing? I guess that the moral here is "Don't do the crime if you cant do the time. What you aren't sure how much time you might do? Then don't do the crime."

I've long been a proponent of citizens being mandated under the fear of DP to shoot the perpetrator on spot if they witness a crime.





---
Well, I have never been, but for the sake of the argument.

Yep. This is why the legislature should define the crimes and the judiciary should define the punishments. So what if every now and again you get dispropportionate sentencing? I guess that the moral here is "Don't do the crime if you cant do the time. What you aren't sure how much time you might do? Then don't do the crime."

Well, the sex offender registry isn't supposed to be a form of punishment(yeah right). It's purpose is supposed to be to help protect children by tracking potential sex offenders. Well putting people who aren't sex offenders on the list kind of makes it harder to track the ones who are. So I guess Georgia has to decide what the real purpose of the list is, don't they?

I've long been a proponent of citizens being mandated under the fear of DP to shoot the perpetrator on spot if they witness a crime.




---
Well, I have never been, but for the sake of the argument.

BLAM

"Oh yeah, that'll be the last time he litters."

Looks to be stupid legislators season on NSG. *watches with interest*

Involves penetration too.

You have to burn them.

"your Honor, he purposely got the minor hot and bothered..."

I'm surprised performing surgery on a kid isn't considered sexual assault. Paranoia is the liver of politics. You can remove a bit of it, but you still need it for the body to survive.

I wouldn't be surprised if any of the following would someday be considered a sex crime against kids:

Being a mother. After all, she had that kid in her vagina. That's a sex organ and kids can't consent to it. Sex crime.

Being a surgeon that operates on kids. You're inserting foreign objects, such as scapels and iv tubes, into the kid's body. How perverted can you get. It's better to just have the kid die because surgery is a sex crime against kids.

Being a father that's not a deadbeat dad. Diaper changes? You're letting him get that close to the kid's privates? Bathtime? The kid is naked, for crying out loud! Spankings? Groundings? Making them stand in the corner? Now he's introducing them to s+m! Pervert!

I'm glad they're taking steps to fix this. If we keep throwing every Tom, Dick, and Harry onto the sex offender registry, it won't even mean anything anymore. The purpose of such lists is to protect the public by giving them knowledge of those who have committed sex crimes and are likely to repeat them.

Ok, NSG. I have reported.

Yeah, but they probably won't make it retroactive, just like they didn't with the Romeo and Juliet law. The official line is that it would take up too much time in the courts. :rolleyes:

Then again, it could be worse. At least this guy did something illegal. I know someone who is a registered sex offender for selling a comic book - one that was not lewd (as determined by the court).

I'm surprised performing surgery on a kid isn't considered sexual assault. Paranoia is the liver of politics. You can remove a bit of it, but you still need it for the body to survive.

I wouldn't be surprised if any of the following would someday be considered a sex crime against kids:

Being a mother. After all, she had that kid in her vagina. That's a sex organ and kids can't consent to it. Sex crime.

Being a surgeon that operates on kids. You're inserting foreign objects, such as scapels and iv tubes, into the kid's body. How perverted can you get. It's better to just have the kid die because surgery is a sex crime against kids.

Being a father that's not a deadbeat dad. Diaper changes? You're letting him get that close to the kid's privates? Bathtime? The kid is naked, for crying out loud! Spankings? Groundings? Making them stand in the corner? Now he's introducing them to s+m! Pervert!
let's not forget the drugs given to kids before their operation...

Another reason why the registry is a pitiful travesty of Justice.

Its just hounding people after their time has alledgedly been served. If their safe to let out, let it go at that. If they're not, don't fucking let them out. And don't define non-sexual crimes as sex crimes you bastards.

I'm surprised performing surgery on a kid isn't considered sexual assault. Paranoia is the liver of politics. You can remove a bit of it, but you still need it for the body to survive.

I wouldn't be surprised if any of the following would someday be considered a sex crime against kids:

Being a mother. After all, she had that kid in her vagina. That's a sex organ and kids can't consent to it. Sex crime.

Being a surgeon that operates on kids. You're inserting foreign objects, such as scapels and iv tubes, into the kid's body. How perverted can you get. It's better to just have the kid die because surgery is a sex crime against kids.

Being a father that's not a deadbeat dad. Diaper changes? You're letting him get that close to the kid's privates? Bathtime? The kid is naked, for crying out loud! Spankings? Groundings? Making them stand in the corner? Now he's introducing them to s+m! Pervert!


This would make a great dystopian setting.

Well, the sex offender registry isn't supposed to be a form of punishment(yeah right). It's purpose is supposed to be to help protect children by tracking potential sex offenders. Well putting people who aren't sex offenders on the list kind of makes it harder to track the ones who are. So I guess Georgia has to decide what the real purpose of the list is, don't they?

Yes.

I've long been a proponent of citizens being mandated under the fear of DP to shoot the perpetrator on spot if they witness a crime.
---
Well, I have never been, but for the sake of the argument.

But who would do the DP? What do you do about those who yearn for the DP the way that a caterpillar yearns for the day that it can emerge from its cocoon and fly from flower to flower across a beautiful spring meadow?

Rolling squid;14608736']This would make a great dystopian setting.

You and me. We're writing this. But we'll need an awesome plot twist...

You and me. We're writing this. But we'll need an awesome plot twist...

A man who arrives in a time machine from the future with a very large arsenal of legally purchased guns (in the future) to overthrow the government and establish a new world order.

"your Honor, he purposely got the minor hot and bothered..."
Drive over them with a steamroller.

Have rabid monkeys attack them.

Show them three M. Night. Shaylaman movies and bore them to death.

any of those do?

A man who arrives in a time machine from the future with a very large arsenal of legally purchased guns (in the future) to overthrow the government and establish a new world order.

But who only does so because the economy is vaguely socialist! While the overly stringent sex-offender laws will be the most prominent, they'll be entirely unrelated to the character's motives who will simply overthrow the government and replace it with an Objectivist paradise called "Tribulation".

We'll call it "Atlas Whined"

He's also the killer. And a robot. From the future of the future, sent back to the past, and again into the future. But not the future future (which is his present) but the past future which is between the past and the future future.

Show them three M. Night. Shaylaman movies and bore them to death.

No need to get nasty. :eek:

You and me. We're writing this. But we'll need an awesome plot twist...
The children realise how much power they have in this new world order and take over, relegating adults into pens and subservient slave roles where they perform for the children's entertainment, fearful to refuse because if they did the child would just need to say, "he touched me!" and they're chemically castrated and banished into the desolate wasteland outside.

No need to get nasty. :eek:
my apologies. you're right: it is a particularly nasty way to kill somone. Should be on the Crimes against humanity list. Not so much cruel and unusual, just cruel.

Next time a minor turns up during a robbery, kill him/her. That's not a sex offense. ;)
It is if you yell "DON'T MOVE, YOU LITTLE BOLLOCKS" first, which is half the fun of shooting kids.




Or so I heard.
BLAM

"Oh yeah, that'll be the last time he litters."
"That hole in his head is littering brains"
"your Honor, he purposely got the minor hot and bothered..."
"I mean, look at that ass, your Honour. Clearly he was tryint to arouse my client!"
The children realise how much power they have in this new world order and take over, relegating adults into pens and subservient slave roles where they perform for the children's entertainment, fearful to refuse because if they did the child would just need to say, "he touched me!" and they're chemically castrated and banished into the desolate wasteland outside.

Children of the Corn 2: The Registering

Who said Americans aren't strange?

Who said Americans was strange?

*raises hand*

*raises hand*

Hang on let me fix my incorrect post.

EDIT: Done

Drive over them with a steamroller. he was driven to be on top of the child your honor...

Have rabid monkeys attack them.see your honor, a classic case of baiting the child with animalistic antics...

Show them three M. Night. Shaylaman movies and bore them to death. obvously coercing the minor to look to him for stimulation...
or.
he attempted to incapacitate the minor with a substance that would leave no blood traces...

"I mean, look at that ass, your Honour. Clearly he was tryint to arouse my client!"


and beside, it's obvious the minor was flaming! :D

he was driven to be on top of the child your honor...

see your honor, a classic case of baiting the child with animalistic antics...

obvously coercing the minor to look to him for stimulation...
or.
he attempted to incapacitate the minor with a substance that would leave no blood traces...


and beside, it's obvious the minor was flaming! :D
Damn, you're good.

Hang on let me fix my incorrect post.

EDIT: Done

*lowers hand*

"your Honor, he purposely got the minor hot and bothered..."

The only solution is to use a large cross-shaped club while screaming "sinner" or something like that. They'll never dare to claim that a religious zealot is a sex offender, wouldn't they.

The only solution is to use a large cross-shaped club while screaming "sinner" or something like that. They'll never dare to claim that a religious zealot is a sex offender, wouldn't they.

You have to be Protestant. Otherwise they could say you assaulted the child to try out for the Priesthood.

:D

Hey, that burger was asking for it.

Another reason why the registry is a pitiful travesty of Justice.

Its just hounding people after their time has alledgedly been served. If their safe to let out, let it go at that. If they're not, don't fucking let them out. And don't define non-sexual crimes as sex crimes you bastards.

The registry exists because prison space is at a premium. If you want to give everyone who would re-offend life sentences, you'd need to build more prisons.

Then there's the ACLU. Give sexual predators life sentences and the ACLU will hound you down for violating their rights. They'll torment your "oppressive" ass until your messed up emotional and mental health makes the predators' victims look perfectly healthy and full of untarnished innocense.

Especially messed up considering the majority of kidnappings are committed by a parent taking his/her child from another parent.

considering it is Georgia, and by the name the defendant sounds black. he should consider himself lucky they didn't execute him.

The registry exists because prison space is at a premium. If you want to give everyone who would re-offend life sentences, you'd need to build more prisons.

Or you could stop wasting space incarcerating prostitutes and people guilty solely of drug possession.

Then there's the ACLU. Give sexual predators life sentences and the ACLU will hound you down for violating their rights. They'll torment your "oppressive" ass until your messed up emotional and mental health makes the predators' victims look perfectly healthy and full of untarnished innocence.

Just like they do with people given a life sentence for murder . . . wait, no they don't.

Or you could stop wasting space incarcerating prostitutes and people guilty solely of drug possession.



Just like they do with people given a life sentence for murder . . . wait, no they don't.

But ending a person's suffering without permission is so much worse than leaving a person's mind horribly scarred for life.

Next time a minor turns up during a robbery, kill him/her. That's not a sex offense. ;)

Nope, it's necrophilia.

The registry exists because prison space is at a premium. If you want to give everyone who would re-offend life sentences, you'd need to build more prisons.

Or you could decriminalize Pot.

Then there's the ACLU. Give sexual predators life sentences and the ACLU will hound you down for violating their rights. They'll torment your "oppressive" ass until your messed up emotional and mental health makes the predators' victims look perfectly healthy and full of untarnished innocense.

If in fact that is the case, well, I hate to say it, but when has the government followed the ACLU?;)

But ending a person's suffering without permission is so much worse than leaving a person's mind horribly scarred for life.

yes, cause you see the first is murder where as the second is just this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nU6w37F9iW4&feature=related)

yes, cause you see the first is murder where as the second is just this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nU6w37F9iW4&feature=related)

The first is hastening the inevitable. The second is forcing people to sin, which creates a super-sin. Unless a priest does it. But he has to be Catholic. Otherwise it's a sin.

And this is why reactionary laws which sound good in light of horrific crimes are often going to cause more serious problems than they will ever resolve.