The Dobbs Wire Archives - Page 5 of 8

Archive by category "The Dobbs Wire" (Page 5)

A Jury Rejected the Charges, but He Still Has to Register As a Sex Offender for Life New York’s highest court says accusations can be considered for registration purposes even when the defendant was acquitted.

Fear and loathing: New York’s top court comes up with a crazy decision. Could the fact that this case involves a sex offense explain the ruling? Have a look at Jacob Sullum’s incisive report for Reason. Appellate Squawk, an erudite appellate defender whose identity is kept a closely guarded secret, has a short, pungent post on the case as well. -Bill Dobbs, The Dobbs Wire April 30th, 2018 In New York a defendant can be forced to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life based on accusations a jury rejected. So the state’s highest court ruled…

The Court of Appeals believes the victim (even when the jury doesn’t)

Fear and loathing: New York’s top court comes up with a crazy decision. Could the fact that this case involves a sex offense explain the ruling? Have a look at Jacob Sullum’s incisive report for Reason. Appellate Squawk, an erudite appellate defender whose identity is kept a closely guarded secret, has a short, pungent post on the case as well. -Bill Dobbs, The Dobbs Wire April 30th, 2018 Comes now New York’s highest court with the holding that an accuser’s trial testimony constitutes clear and convincing evidence of the truth of her accusations, even though the jury found her not…

Writing Sex Offender Laws Based on Fake Recidivism Numbers Is Rational, Court Says The Illinois Supreme Court unanimously upholds a law banning sex offenders from public parks.

Fake recidivism numbers: Illinois has a law banishing individuals on the sex offense registry from public parks. In 2017 an Illinois appeals court struck down the statute, saying “it bears no reasonable relationship to protecting the public.” Now comes the Illinois Supreme Court with a unanimous ruling upholding the park ban. Fake recidivism numbers don’t seem to bother the court much as fear and spinelessness triumph over reason! Kudos to Marc Pepitone and his legal eagle Katherine Strohl for waging this fight. Stay tuned, one of the claims has been sent to a lower court and the litigation is expected…

Vigilantes Assault, Rob and Murder Registered Sex Offenders

Consequences: A listing on the sex offense registry carries many consequences. Registered individuals face rampant discrimination in jobs, housing, education, healthcare and many other areas of life. Anti-discrimination laws rarely include people who have a ‘record.’ So there’s little recourse and, even more alarming, much discrimination is required — by state and federal laws that bar registrants from various occupations, housing, schools, loans, and more. Sometimes the terrible treatment escalates to harassment. And then there are physical attacks, including ones that prove fatal. How did we get to this point? What has been unleashed? Registration turns people into lepers and…

How Sex Offender Registries Can Result in Vigilante Murder Some Canadian conservatives are pushing for more public sex offender registries. But there is a history of deadly violence associated with them.

The Dobbs Wire: Thomas Pauli R.I.P.

Thomas Pauli R.I.P: Winter weather brought Thomas Pauli’s death but the real cause was draconian laws that drive people into poverty and homelessness. Thomas had a serious scrape with the law many years back and paid a price, serving 11 years in prison. All that might have moved to the rear view mirror but this was a sex offense. Special laws apply so he was put on the sex offense registry and faced severe restrictions on where he could live or even get temporary refuge from winter’s wrath. His death brought some slight changes to the laws. Nine years later…

The Dobbs Wire: INSPECT the hydra!

WATCH OUT for #MeToo–that’s the message in an important essay by JoAnn Wypijewski, just published by The Nation. What about accountability for sexual wrongdoing? Shall it be delivered by headlines that have morphed into guided missiles, legal process only an afterthought? We’re decades into very severe laws and punishments for sex offenses. Nearly 900,000 people are marked with a scarlet letter and forced to sign the sex offense registry. Will #MeToo spur progress or bring more crackdowns and draconian measures? Has #MeToo become a wrecking ball aimed at reason and justice? “Inspect the hydra” and have a look at this…

The Dobbs Wire: FINAL performances of America Is Hard To See!

FINAL performances this week of America Is Hard To See, a new Off-Broadway play that takes on a very thorny topic – sexual wrongdoing – and it’s a mind-opener! Here’s hoping the play gets another bigger run in NYC, and goes on the road. Closing night is Feb. 24th. There’s more about the play (it’s based on a real life community-in-exile) and how it was made in the reviews and video linked below. -Bill Dobbs, The Dobbs Wire info@thedobbswire.com TICKETS (get two tickets for the price of 1, use code 2FOR1) http://www.here.org/shows/detail/1927/ Reviews TheaterMania review by…

The Dobbs Wire: the VIDEO from last night!

The registry: An unusual event took place last night in lower Manhattan, a rare live public debate about the sex offense registry. In front of a packed house Emily Horowitz, a sociologist and author of Protecting Our Kids?: How Sex Offender Laws Are Failing Us, went head-to-head with Marci Hamilton, a prominent child safety advocate. The pair debated this proposition: “All the laws requiring those convicted of sex offenses to put their names in a registry should be abolished.” It was quite a show! And timely – with nearly 900,000 individuals required to sign the registry questions about its effectiveness…

The Dobbs Wire: Blockbuster expose of New York’s special locked facility – MARCY

New York: Just published, a blockbuster report about conditions at Central New York Psychiatric Center near Syracuse. The center is a special locked facility where New York State keeps individuals who have already paid a price for sex offenses and served prison time. After incarceration, indefinite confinement is the next stop–not for anything they have done but for what the state believes they might do. In a constitutional twilight liberty vanishes on a hunch. New York’s facility is more commonly known as Marcy; for all practical purposes it is a prison with precious little hope for those inside. In addition…

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