Wednesday’s ruling applies only to the residency restrictions of Georgia’s law. A separate
lawsuit has challenged parts of the law that bar sex offenders from working or loitering in
places where children gather.
Posted on 11/22/2007 3:42:45 PM PST by Zakeet
The Georgia Supreme Court unanimously struck down a state law Wednesday that limited where registered sex offenders could live, ruling that the statute was so restrictive it unconstitutionally deprived the offenders of their property rights.
The law, described when it was adopted in 2006 as the nation’s toughest restriction on sex offenders, prohibited them from living within 1,000 feet of schools, churches or any other place that children might congregate, including more than 150,000 school bus stops in the state. The ban applied even when a school, a church or the like opened in an area where an offender was already living.
“Under the terms of that statute, it is apparent that there is no place in Georgia where a registered sex offender can live without being continually at risk of being ejected,” said the seven-member court’s opinion, written by Presiding Justice Carol W. Hunstein.
The court ruled that the statute violated Fifth Amendment protections against the public taking of private property without compensation.
The law “looms over every location” that registered sex offenders might choose to call home, with the potential to force them from their residence any time “some third party chooses to establish any of the long list of places and facilities encompassed within the residency restriction,” Justice Hunstein wrote.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Wednesday’s ruling applies only to the residency restrictions of Georgia’s law. A separate
lawsuit has challenged parts of the law that bar sex offenders from working or loitering in
places where children gather.
I’d move there!
A target-rich environment.
Too many parents will think their kids are safe in those zones, when in fact the only ones being kept out are convicted sex offenders who are trying to obey the law. Those convicted sex offenders who aren't will not be deterred by the light sentence for entering the zone when they're risking much more by the re-offense.
Consider too that half the sex-offense convictions handed down every year are first-time convictions. Nothing, not even the law, keeps those out these zones.
Way too often these zones are sold and referenced as "sex-offender-free zones." Go ahead, buy the advertising and let down your guard in these zones if "you" like.
Just don't blame me if somebody takes advantage of "your" stupidity.
(Quotes used because I'm not referencing you, RC.)
At least one of these “sex offenders” you read about is a 28 year old woman labeled as a sex offender for life for having had oral sex with a 15 year old boy when she was 17, i.e. for violating somebody’s PC standards. Scares the hell out of me just thinking about it....
There are people on the list for mooning their gym class or for having sex as teens. This is the only life sentence that is actually carried out in this country.
There is no place that isn't close to either a school or a church or a school bus stop. The really dangerous sex offenders know where to go to find children and they have cars. They would probably choose a site to offend that would be far from their residence anyway, so no one would suspect them. This law is really pointless. Just make them register and keep an eye on them. And as someone else pointed out, half of them on the list probably just had sex when they were teenagers. It's amazing how the law can go from zero to 100 in one well-intentioned overcorrection.
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