Documentation List 22 Dec 2006

06-030 @ 2 kb	STEVEN K. PAULSON, Colorado to ban child marriages; The Associated Press, July 19, 2006 Gov. Bill Owens signed a measure banning child brides, ending an uproar sparked by a court ruling that said 12-year-old girls could enter common-law marriages in Colorado.
06-031 @ 9 kb	Sarah Prohaska, Appeal questions whether words alone equal child abuse; Palm Beach Post, July 22, 2006 This father didn't use his fists to abuse his child, prosecutors and Walsh told jurors. He used words and emotional manipulation.
06-032 @ 9 kb	Hannah Sentenac, More States Move to Use GPS Tracking of Sex Offenders; Foxnews, May 31, 2006 Many states are initiating programs that track registered sex offenders using Global Positioning Satellites, or GPS, sometimes for life. GPS can track the exact location of the offenders at all times, making it easier for law enforcement to ensure that they're abiding with the terms of their release.
06-033 @ 4 kb	Judge backs off ban blocking Georgia sex offender law; The Associated Press July 27, 2006 A federal judge refused to extend a temporary order blocking the state of Georgia from banning sex offenders from living near school bus stops, a decision he conceded would result in more "confusion" for the state's 11,000 sex offenders.
06-034 @ 7 kb	Declan McCullagh, Police Blotter: Laptop border searches OK'd, news.com, July 26 2006 Three-judge panel unanimously says that border police may conduct random searches of laptops without search warrants or probable cause. These searches can include seizing the laptop and subjecting it to extensive forensic analysis.
06-035 @ 4 kb	Marshall Kirkpatrick, US House: Schools must block MySpace, many other sites; techcrunch.com, July 27, 2006 US House Resolution 5319, the Deleting Online Predators Act (DOPA), was passed by a 410 to 15 vote tonight. If the Resolution becomes law social networking sites and chat rooms must be blocked by schools and libraries or those institutions will lose their federal internet subsidies.
06-036 @ 5 kb	JONATHAN BANDLER, Appeals court throws out Westchester sex-sting conviction; THE JOURNAL NEWS, July 28, 2006) The unanimous ruling by the four judges [...] determined that words alone -- however sexually explicit -- do not meet the legal standard to support a conviction for attempted disseminating indecent material to minors.
06-037 @ 4 kb	SEANNA ADCOX, Homeless sex offenders may stay in prison; Associated Press, July 26, 2006 Sex offenders who can't find a home won't be released, and those that find themselves homeless after leaving prison must go back.
06-038 @ 5 kb	GREG BLUESTEIN, School districts now face tough decision over sex offender law; Associated Press, July 26, 2006 Thanks to a surprising federal court ruling, Georgia's 181 school districts must now decide whether to formally designate local school bus stops, enabling police to enforce a new law that restricts registered sex offenders from living within 1,000 feet of the stops.
06-039 @ 4 kb	Geoffrey Fattah, Two say photos of girls weren't porn; Their attorneys argue children 'fully clothed'; Deseret Morning News, August 03, 2006 Court have ruled that photos do not have to necessarily be nude in order to be considered "lascivious." The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals has defined "lascivious" as "tending to excite lust; lewd; indecent; obscene; sexual impurity; tending to deprave the morals in respect to sexual relations." Case law has established a list of six standards by which courts can determine if a photo is in appropriate.
06-040 @ 5 kb	Tom Espiner, Government to force handover of encryption keys; ZDNet UK, May 18, 2006 The UK Government is preparing to give the police the authority to force organisations and individuals to disclose encryption keys [...]. Anyone who refuses to hand over a key to the police would face up to two years' imprisonment.
06-041 @ 5 kb	Police decryption powers 'flawed'; BBC, UK, 15 August 2006 The government faces criticism over plans to give police powers to make suspects produce readable copies of encrypted computer evidence. The police say the powers are needed because criminals are increasingly using encryption to hide evidence.
06-042 @ 3 kb	Ex-Priest Seeks To Withdraw Guilty Plea In Child Porn Case; wnbc.com/news, August 23, 2006 The Appellate Division, 2nd Department ruled that because the lawyer's Internet communications with someone he believed to be a minor contained no visual "sexual images," the indictment must be dismissed.
06-043 @ 3 kb	SEX OFFENDERS; Plan gains to publicly identify accused; Ohio panel backs registry proposal; BLADE COLUMBUS, August 29, 2006 An Ohio legislative panel yesterday rubber-stamped an unprecedented process that would allow sex offenders to be publicly identified and tracked even if they've never been charged with a crime.
06-044 @ 3 kb	New law requires mark on sex offender IDs; Decatur Daily, 2 September 2006 A new [Alabama] state law took effect Friday that requires all convicted adult sex offenders to have a special mark placed on their state driver licenses or non-driver identification cards. The mark will be visible to anyone who checks a person's identification -- from police officers to grocery store cashiers to clerks at video stores.
06-045 @ 3 kb	BRENDAN RILEY, Nevada court rejects Internet predator charge; ASSOCIATED PRESS, September 14, 2006 A state law targeting Internet predators was upheld Thursday by the Nevada Supreme Court - but justices dismissed an indictment against a Reno man accused of violating the law by meeting with an undercover officer posing as a 14-year-old.
06-046 @ 8 kb	SCOTT GUTIERREZ, If there's a sex offender student, schools will know; Law requires principals, but not parents, to be notified; Seatle PI, September 18, 2006 Including: Other sex offender laws going into effect.
06-047 @ 6 kb	Jenifer Warren, Laws Tighten Rules for Sex Offenders; LA Times, September 21, 2006 The governor [of California] signs bills that extend prison time and bar loitering near parks and schools. A ballot initiative offers additional provisions. Calling public safety government's most important job, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Wednesday signed a package of bills increasing prison terms for many sex offenders and barring them from loitering near schools and parks once they are released.
06-048 @ 2 kb	Jon Murray, Sex offender parks ban overturned; Indy Star, October 5, 2006 A federal judge today barred Indianapolis from enforcing an ordinance that bans child molesters from going within 1,000 feet of parks, playgrounds and public places where children gather.
06-049 @ 3 kb	Editorial: Prop. 83 costs outweigh value; Existing laws protect children; Venture County Star, October 8, 2006 - Editorial against proposition 83 (housing law)
06-050 @ 5 kb	Shawntaye Hopkins, Sex offender evictions begin; Law limiting where they can live upheld; Oct. 11, 2006 Fayette County sheriff's deputies went out at midnight to lay down the law. Even before the ruling was announced, authorities in Fayette County said they would start enforcing the law and possibly evicting or arresting sex offenders at 12:01 a.m. today.
06-051 @ 3 kb	Dean Pritchard, Sex trial nixed; Girl refuses to testify; Wninnipeg Sun, October 18, 2006 The name of a Winnipeg-area man accused of sexually abusing his pre-teen granddaughter may still be added to the provincial child abuse registry, even though the Crown was forced to drop charges against him yesterday [... because ...] the 14-year-old victim refused to testify. [...] In the absence of a court finding of guilt, a person's name can be added to the registry if a family court finds a child to be in need of protection due to abuse, or if CFS reviews the case and concludes the person has abused a child.
06-052 @ 2 kb	Judge Clears Pizza Ranch Founder of Sexual Abuse Convictions, AP, October 20, 2006 In a court ruling filed this week, a judge cleared Lawrence Vander Esch of wrongdoing after a state Supreme Court decision redefined the parameters for sexual abuse. The judge's ruling also lifted requirements that Vander Esch register as a sex offender. [...] A month before his release, the Iowa Supreme Court ruled in a separate case that sexual abuse does not occur if a defendant deceives a victim to get consent to perform a sex act. The ruling was applied retroactively to Vander Esch.
06-053 @ 14 kb	Stephen V. Treglia, Online Predators; New York Law Journal Online, 09-19-2006 Article about the word "depict" in the law prohibiting to communicate with sexually explicit data by computer to a minor. A court has decided that 'depict' does refer to pictures, not to words only. This has consequences for the implication of the law.
06-054 @ 7 kb	Adrienne Packer, Nevada case may affect inmates nationwide; Las Vegas Review-Journal, Oct. 22, 2006 Juridical article about cases in which a witness has not testified in the court room.
06-055 @ 8 kb	John Cot�, New sex predator law facing legal tests; The Chronicle, October 22, 2006 Attorneys for two Bay Area sex offenders are poised to test the constitutionality of a new state law that allows convicts designated as sexually violent predators to be held indefinitely in mental hospitals after they have completed their prison terms.
06-056 @ 5 kb	Marcus McCann, Canadian age of consent bill heads to committee; Davies & Siksay demand youth be consulted; Xtra.ca, November 03, 2006 A bill to raise the age of consent to 16 quietly passed second reading in Parliament Oct 16, but without the unanimous consent that the Harper Conservatives had hoped for.
06-057 @ 2 kb	Will Oremus, Lewd comments land man in jail; Five months plus sex offender treatment for Half Moon Bay man; San Mateo Daily News, 4 November 2006 Steven Suvaco may not have touched a 13-year-old girl he approached at a bus stop in Half Moon Bay on March 10, but his actions will still land him five months in jail and a spot on the sex offender registry.
06-058 @ 4 kb	Sean O'Sullivan, Man's scarlet letter: 'I am a registered sex offender'; The News Journal, November 3, 2006 Judge orders wearing of T-shirt for man who exposed himself repeatedly to 10-year-old girl.
06-059 @ 2 kb	Boy denies sex abuse, but court disagrees; Reuters, November 10, 2006 Phnom Penh - A Cambodian court sentenced a Belgian to 18 years in jail on Friday for sexual abuse of a 14-year-old boy, who denied anything had happened. [... The boy] said he regarded the Belgian as his stepfather. "He never sexually abused me," he told the court.
06-060 @ 4 kb	Bill Kaczor, Supreme Court upholds internet child-sex laws, AP 11/16/2006 Two [Florida] state laws designed to crack down on sexual predators who use the Internet to prey on children do not violate constitutional rights of free speech and interstate commerce, the Florida Supreme Court ruled Thursday. The justices unanimously upheld statutes that make it a crime to use online services to lure or entice a child and transmit material harmful to a minor.
06-061 @ 4 kb	Nicholas Confessore, N.Y. Court Opposes Order on Sex Offenders; NYTimes, November 21, 2006 New York State's highest court ruled today that the state cannot use mental hygiene laws to confine sex offenders in psychiatric hospitals after their prison terms end.
06-062 @ 4 kb	The loopholes with sex-offender pleas; stamfordadvocate.com; editorial; December 4, 2006 Juridical article about cases in which prosecutor and court accept pleas: "In too many cases involving alleged sex offenders, prosecutors and judges unsure of conviction settle for guilty pleas to reduced charges. That ensures a guilty verdict, but it can let the accused skirt the requirement to register as a sex offender and, perhaps worse, forgo counseling."
06-063 @ 2 kb	Brandon Bain, E-mail bill to track sex offenders; Newsday.com, December 07, 2006 Senators Charles Schumer and John McCain announced [...]they will introduce legislation next year that would force sex offenders to register their e-mail addresses with authorities, which the lawmakers say will aid in tracking offenders on social networking sites like MySpace.com.
06-064 @ 8 kb	Mobile home court evicts sex offenders; Questions still remain about where offenders can live; Sioux City Journal, December 05, 2006 Even though laws have been passed regulating how close registered sex offenders can live to schools and day-care centers, how close they should be allowed to live to children's homes remains a contentious battleground. [...] "I knew what I was doing at the time, but I wasn't thinking about what my victims felt ... A person can grow empathy, recovery can be made. I believe that if we have a decent heart in us and we are trying to be a good person, there will be no reoffense." Now, he said, he just wants to be able to live somewhere where he can keep to himself and work on putting his life back together. Being evicted didn't exactly help.
06-065 @ 2 kb	Esteban Parra, Elsmere man who killed alleged molester gets 9-month sentence; The News Journal, January 5, 2007 An Elsmere man, who fatally beat a senior citizen he believed molested his 5-year-old daughter, was sentenced this morning to 9 months in prison. [...] "The circumstances surrounding this crime were taken into consideration by the state"

Documentation List # E 22a: January 2007

This list has a theme: Laws