Sex Offender Civil Commitment Defense Attorneys Need to Be Sent Back to School

The below quotes came from “The Legal Pad” Volume 3, Issue 10, (October 10, 2019) published by Cyrus P. Gladden, II from the gulag in Mooselake, Minnesota.  All quotes came from the Cucolo & Perlin 2017 pdf link below.   Heather Ellis Cucolo  & Michael L. Perlin, “Promoting Dignity and Preventing Shame and Humiliation by Improving the Quality and Education of Attorneys in Sexually Violent Predator (SVP) Civil Commitment Cases,” University of Florida Journal of Law and Public Policy, Vol. 28, Issue 2 (August 2017), pp. 291-328   at pp.292 This Article examines the quality of attorneys who litigate Sexually…

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Responsivity Reconsidered

The below quotes came from “The Legal Pad” Volume 3, Issue 9, (September 1, 2019) published by Cyrus P. Gladden, II from the gulag in Mooselake, Minnesota.  All quotes came from Guy Bourgon, James Bonta, & Public Safety Canada, “Reconsidering the responsivity principle: A Way To Move Forward,” 78 (2) Federal Probation 3 (Sept 2014).   The following short excerpt points out: (1) Problems with the concept of “responsivity” (which originally referred to responsivity of the treatment program to the specific needs of each client, but now has curiously shifted to responsivity — typically claimed lack of responsivity — of…

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Kingsley Breathes New Life Into Substantive Due Process as a Check on Abuse of Government Power

Overlooked by Karsjens Plaintiffs and by both Judge Frank and the 8th Circuit, in 2015 SCOTUS decided a case involving application of the substantive due process guarantee in favor of a pretrial detainee suing jail personnel for physical abuse. Significantly, SCOTUS declined to apply the Lewis requirement that the court’s conscience must be shocked by the government officials’ misconduct (including that it must be malicious and sadistic). Even more significantly (to us), those confined under commitment to mental health facilities are held to be entitled to greater deference than those held in jails on pretrial detention. The following article excerpts…

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Committed SOs in North Dakota Land Two Hard Blows Toward Freedom

…In summary, the court hereby adopts the magistrate judge’s report and Recommendation and Supplemental Report and Recommendation in their entirety and hereby incorporates the analyses by reference in this order. Upon de novo review, the undersigned is not persuaded by any of the evidence submitted or arguments advanced for reversing the magistrate judges analysis set forth in the Report and Recommendation or Supplemental Report and Recommendation.  For the reasons stated therein, summary judgement is GRANTED in favor of all defendants as to the following claims: (1) all claims based on allegations that Rodney K. Ireland, Matthew Graha, Christopher Simon, John…

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Missouri’s SVP Law: Time for a change?

Sam Newman, “Missouri’s SVP Law: Time for a change?”, 60 St. Louis U. L. J. 711 (Summer 2016) Text excerpts: Newman, 721: In Kansas v. Hendricks…. the Court added that the mental condition must cause the individual to have difficulty controlling his or her behavior As a result of the Supreme Court’s decision in Hendricks, the clinical condition actually causing a loss of ‘volitional impairment’ is essential to SVP statutes”. Newman, 722 : …[A]ccurately determin[ing] when… a ‘mental abnormality’ is actually causing volitional impairment… is such a difficult task that the American Bar Association (ABA) considers it nearly impossible.  In…

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Sexual Deviance over the Lifespan: Reductions in Deviant Sexual Behavior in the Aging Sex Offender

Howard E. Barbaree & Tay Blanchard, “Sexual Deviance over the Lifespan: Reductions in Deviant Sexual Behavior in the Aging Sex Offender,”  Barbara & Blanchard, 37….[A]lthough some individual traits and predispositions underlying sexual deviance, such as sexual preferences or antisocial traits, may persist to the end of life, the expression or performance of sexually deviant behavior decreases with age.”  Barabee & Blanchard, 39: “The Role of the Male Sex Hormone Testosterone” “Mammalian gonads and adrenals secrete several male sex hormones called ‘androgens’.  All are steroid hormones produced primarily in the Leydig cells in the male testes, although some small amounts of…

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Constitutional Law and the Role of Scientific Evidence: The Transformative Potential of Doe v. Snyder

Melissa Hamilton, “Constitutional Law and the Role of Scientific Evidence: The Transformative Potential of Doe v. Snyder”, 58 Boston College Law Rev. E-Supplement 34 (2017) Text Excerpts: Hamilton, 35 …[T]he Sixth Circuit expressly recognizes scientific studies showing that sex offenders as a group do not pose a significant risk of recidivism risk. ….Snyder makes a contemporary case for the relevance in constitutional decision-making of data gathered from interdisciplinary scientific fields, particularly where such data conflict with legislative assumptions” Hamilton, 36  …A foundational principle underlying these policies is the assumption that sex offenders pose a uniquely high risk of recidivism.  In…

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