The Fallout Continues...
Even more news stories about the sex offender law:
From the AJC:
Ga. to appeal sex offender law ruling
Home near school bus stops would be banned
By JILL YOUNG MILLER
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 07/01/06
Georgia's attorney general filed a notice of appeal Friday to fight a judge's order to halt enforcement of part of the state's new sex offender law.
The sweeping law takes effect today. In dispute is a provision that would ban registered sex offenders from living within 1,000 feet of school bus stops.
Attorney General Thurbert Baker also asked the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals for permission to appeal U.S. District Court Judge Clarence Cooper's ruling this week temporarily banning enforcement of the bus stop rule.
In court documents, Baker said Cooper's order "provided protection to thousands of sex offenders including rapists, child molesters and others who have demonstrated a propensity for committing offenses against society." He said the court has put Georgia's children "at risk of assault at a place where there is generally little to no supervision i.e. the school bus stop."
The Southern Center for Human Rights and the American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia filed a lawsuit last week claiming enforcement of the bus stop rule would drive thousands of sex offenders from their homes. The lawsuit contends the law is unconstitutional because it banishes offenders. The next court hearing is scheduled for July 11.
Georgia's sex offender registry includes more than 10,000 people, and it's not known how many live near school bus stops.
The new sex offender law, sponsored by House Majority Leader Jerry Keen (R-St. Simons Island), was designed to come down hard on criminals who prey on children. As the bus stop issue is in court, the rest of the law takes effect today. It requires:
•Mandatory sentences of 25 years to life for certain sex crimes.
•Sex offenders sentenced to life to serve a minimum of 30 years before any chance of parole. (Current law allows parole consideration after 14 years.)
•Lifetime Global Positioning System monitoring for sexual predators.
The law also removes first-offender treatment for sex offenders; everyone convicted of a sex crime will serve time.
And the law acknowledges that consensual sex between teenagers won't be criminalized. The law reduces sodomy from a felony to a misdemeanor if the victim is at least 13 and the person convicted is no more than four years older.
The law still imposes living, working and loitering restrictions. Sexual predators, the most dangerous of sex offenders, cannot work within 1,000 feet of where minors congregate. Registered sex offenders of any kind cannot live or loiter within 1,000 feet of a child care facility, school, church or other area where minors congregate.
From the Gwinnett Daily Post:
Sex offender’s request denied by judge
07/01/2006 -
By Andria Simmons
Staff Writer
andria.simmons
@gwinnettdailypost.com
LAWRENCEVILLE — A registered sex offender’s request to be exempt for six months from sweeping residency restrictions of a new state law was denied Friday by a Gwinnett judge.
Superior Court Judge Ronnie K. Batchelor told lawyers for registered sex offender Bryan Sumrak that a federal district judge’s decision to halt enforcement of the law pertaining to school bus stops made Sumrak’s case a “moot point.”
The new state law that takes effect today prohibits sex offenders in Georgia from living, working or loitering within 1,000 feet of anywhere children gather — including schools, churches, parks, gyms, swimming pools and school bus stops. However, U.S. District Judge Clarence Cooper on Thursday issued a temporary restraining order halting enforcement of the school bus stop provision while he ponders a class-action lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the law.
Attorneys for the Southern Center for Human Rights, a nonprofit, public-interest law firm based in Atlanta, argue the law would force thousands of sex offenders from their homes. All 292 registered sex offenders in Gwinnett live within 1,000 feet of a bus stop. They would have to move if the law remains in place or face a penalty of 10 years in prison, according to the Gwinnett County Sheriff’s Department.
Sumrak’s attorney, C.J. “Jack” Spence of Lawrenceville, filed a lawsuit Thursday in Gwinnett County Superior Court asking a judge for a six-month reprieve to give his client time to sell his house and make other living arrangements. Spence said he may still pursue the lawsuit because he believes the sex offender law violates the Georgia Constitution as well as the U.S. Constitution.
“What (state legislators) really want to do is tell these folks: ‘Go hang yourself, we don’t want you,’” Spence said. “But we didn’t give them the death penalty. We didn’t give them a life sentence. This isn’t fair.”
Supporters of the law say it is designed to protect children from sexual predators who could reoffend.
From the AJC:
Ga. to appeal sex offender law ruling
Home near school bus stops would be banned
By JILL YOUNG MILLER
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 07/01/06
Georgia's attorney general filed a notice of appeal Friday to fight a judge's order to halt enforcement of part of the state's new sex offender law.
The sweeping law takes effect today. In dispute is a provision that would ban registered sex offenders from living within 1,000 feet of school bus stops.
Attorney General Thurbert Baker also asked the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals for permission to appeal U.S. District Court Judge Clarence Cooper's ruling this week temporarily banning enforcement of the bus stop rule.
In court documents, Baker said Cooper's order "provided protection to thousands of sex offenders including rapists, child molesters and others who have demonstrated a propensity for committing offenses against society." He said the court has put Georgia's children "at risk of assault at a place where there is generally little to no supervision i.e. the school bus stop."
The Southern Center for Human Rights and the American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia filed a lawsuit last week claiming enforcement of the bus stop rule would drive thousands of sex offenders from their homes. The lawsuit contends the law is unconstitutional because it banishes offenders. The next court hearing is scheduled for July 11.
Georgia's sex offender registry includes more than 10,000 people, and it's not known how many live near school bus stops.
The new sex offender law, sponsored by House Majority Leader Jerry Keen (R-St. Simons Island), was designed to come down hard on criminals who prey on children. As the bus stop issue is in court, the rest of the law takes effect today. It requires:
•Mandatory sentences of 25 years to life for certain sex crimes.
•Sex offenders sentenced to life to serve a minimum of 30 years before any chance of parole. (Current law allows parole consideration after 14 years.)
•Lifetime Global Positioning System monitoring for sexual predators.
The law also removes first-offender treatment for sex offenders; everyone convicted of a sex crime will serve time.
And the law acknowledges that consensual sex between teenagers won't be criminalized. The law reduces sodomy from a felony to a misdemeanor if the victim is at least 13 and the person convicted is no more than four years older.
The law still imposes living, working and loitering restrictions. Sexual predators, the most dangerous of sex offenders, cannot work within 1,000 feet of where minors congregate. Registered sex offenders of any kind cannot live or loiter within 1,000 feet of a child care facility, school, church or other area where minors congregate.
From the Gwinnett Daily Post:
Sex offender’s request denied by judge
07/01/2006 -
By Andria Simmons
Staff Writer
andria.simmons
@gwinnettdailypost.com
LAWRENCEVILLE — A registered sex offender’s request to be exempt for six months from sweeping residency restrictions of a new state law was denied Friday by a Gwinnett judge.
Superior Court Judge Ronnie K. Batchelor told lawyers for registered sex offender Bryan Sumrak that a federal district judge’s decision to halt enforcement of the law pertaining to school bus stops made Sumrak’s case a “moot point.”
The new state law that takes effect today prohibits sex offenders in Georgia from living, working or loitering within 1,000 feet of anywhere children gather — including schools, churches, parks, gyms, swimming pools and school bus stops. However, U.S. District Judge Clarence Cooper on Thursday issued a temporary restraining order halting enforcement of the school bus stop provision while he ponders a class-action lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the law.
Attorneys for the Southern Center for Human Rights, a nonprofit, public-interest law firm based in Atlanta, argue the law would force thousands of sex offenders from their homes. All 292 registered sex offenders in Gwinnett live within 1,000 feet of a bus stop. They would have to move if the law remains in place or face a penalty of 10 years in prison, according to the Gwinnett County Sheriff’s Department.
Sumrak’s attorney, C.J. “Jack” Spence of Lawrenceville, filed a lawsuit Thursday in Gwinnett County Superior Court asking a judge for a six-month reprieve to give his client time to sell his house and make other living arrangements. Spence said he may still pursue the lawsuit because he believes the sex offender law violates the Georgia Constitution as well as the U.S. Constitution.
“What (state legislators) really want to do is tell these folks: ‘Go hang yourself, we don’t want you,’” Spence said. “But we didn’t give them the death penalty. We didn’t give them a life sentence. This isn’t fair.”
Supporters of the law say it is designed to protect children from sexual predators who could reoffend.
posted by Austin O. Jones | 7:41 PM
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