Episode 13
2018/02/24
On to the news items:
From The Washington Post: He was arrested for a sex act that’s no longer a crime. Years later, he remains convicted.
Green was 20 when he was arrested after having oral sex with a 16-year-old male in a Georgia hotel room. He was convicted of a sex crime — Was it consensual? it was. Was it because the partner was under the age of consent? In GA it is 16. He was convicted because the incident happened in 1997, when oral and anal sex between consenting adults was prohibited under Georgia’s sodomy law. The conviction required him to register as a sex offender, a stigmatizing label that he carried for years.
From The American Press: No housing options for sex offender. A requirement of Mr. Ellender release is a housing plan that complies with guidelines set for sex offenders. Ellender has been in jail since 2015 and has no place to live if he is released.
From Yahoo Sports: Oregon State left-hander Luke Heimrich returned to the baseball diamond on Friday, helping to lead his ballclub to a 5-2 win against New Mexico. It was the first time Heimlich had pitched in a game since last June, when he removed himself from Oregon State’s College World Series bound team to avoid becoming a “distraction.” “Everybody, most of the time, deserves a second chance. I get that,” an anonymous athletic director told CBS Sports Dennis Dodd. “[Heimlich] went through his counseling, but it was a 6-year-old child … You’ve got little girls coming to your games. You can’t have that as an image with your program with Larry Nassar and all those things going on. Really? “You just have to say, ‘I’m sorry, young man, you can’t play for us.’”
From The Herald Republican: Sex offender registry levels stiff penalties. Noble County Superior 1 Court Judge Robert Kirsch believes the county trial courts, prosecutors and judges, should be given discretion on who should register and how long they must abide by the strict rules of the registry. Why have we taken the sentencing away from judges to determine the appropriate punishment? We fuss that judges legislate from the bench. Shouldn’t we also fuss that judges hands are tied in handing out sentences?
- Note:Ted and Tricia Benhower were convicted of sexual conduct in the presence of their children in 2007 and continue to rack up felonies due to their failure to meet the requirements of the registry.
From The Progress: Wolf signs bill to protect victims of sexual abuse crimes. Governor Tom Wolf on Wednesday signed House Bill 631 into law. The primary intent of which is to provide for greater public safety by ensuring convicted sexual offenders remain subject to registration requirements in the wake of recent court decisions impacting Pennsylvania’s implementation of the Sexual Offender Registration and Notification Act.
From The Independent: Changes Are Coming to California Sex Offender Registry. A New Approach Will Consider the Severity of Crimes. California will use a tier system. Deputy Public Defender Laura Arnold argued the state spends exorbitant resources every year monitoring sex offenders even though they only make up a tiny fraction of those who have committed a dangerous crime and are likely to reoffend
https://www.independent.com/news/2018/feb/15/changes-are-coming-california-sex-offender-registr/
From NBC News: Her son was sentenced to 40 years at the age of 14. She says the prosecution waited until he was 18 before they arrested him. When he was 19, he’d be overwhelmed by guilt and depression. Prosecutors asked horrific questions about the age and sex that he prefers. He ultimately committed suicide.
https://www.nbcnews.com/video/grieving-mom-sex-offender-registry-killed-my-son-249495619999
From The Daily Beast: Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens Indicted for Taking Nude Photo of Woman Without Consent. According to prosecutors, Greitens “knowingly photographed” the woman while she was nude and had a “reasonable expectation of privacy.” Greitens said “My confidence in our prosecutorial system is shaken, but not broken.”
Rush Limbaugh 250k deaths by knives
https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/deaths.htm
Heart disease: 633,842
- Cancer: 595,930
- Chronic lower respiratory diseases: 155,041
- Accidents (unintentional injuries): 146,571
- Stroke (cerebrovascular diseases): 140,323
- Alzheimer’s disease: 110,561
- Diabetes: 79,535
- Influenza and pneumonia: 57,062
- Nephritis, nephrotic syndrome, and nephrosis: 49,959
- Intentional self-harm (suicide): 44,193
Thank you Dave for becoming a Patron over at Patreon.com/registrymatters
Voicemail from Tom
The Gentle Nature of Americans? That’s funny, we put down dogs for biting but encourage “people” to go after each other with a “no regrets for any one” attitude. Humans are really the most vicious, mean, nasty animals on our precious earth. God help us.
Total tongue and cheek – comment made during the podcast
Thanks to Rush we wouldnt know about death by knives ,we need knife control ,think of the hundreds of thousands effected by people killing people with knives vis. a fraction of that effected by so called sex crimes ,and then the disaster of people having to carry the scarlet letters S.O. some for the rest of their lives ,it makes no sense to many of us on the list .
Thanks for the comment –
I assume you’re being sarcastic – I can’t find anything to support that 250k number
Andys,
Concerning the sodemy laws.
I believe blanket bans on such behavior have been ruled unconstitutional. Lawrence v. Texts2003 SCOTUS 6-3.
So man convicted under illegal law but gets no tangible relief. Despicable! Same case in NC v Packingham whereby wrongly incarcerated registrants under illegal law not getting relief. Residency restrictions imposed by local gov’s not authorized under US constitution’s limit of two levels/forms/regimes: FED&State. It is also well known that some given the sex offender designation are not actually sex offenders, through DNA exoneration! So felons are being made both wrongly and illegally. This IS the state of affairs in America. Before the pit in my stomach grows too large, I must also point to the Machiavellian use of electronic databases by both gov’t and private individuals to force agendas and engage in Rent Seeking. How in the hell did it get so ugly here? Perhaps it because we follow our leadership. How many levels of gov’t do we need?