Federal Misdemeanor Offense Exclusion from Sex Offender Registration Laws
Originally created for felons who offended sexually against children, the Sex Offender Registry is now destroying lives of otherwise normal decent people over misdemeanor offenses.
The current laws governing assignment to the Sex Offender Registry are totally out of scope with the original intent in creating the registry and it's implied effect of 'helping to keep society safe from sexual predators".
The original intent of the SOR was to make 'public' the information on 'dangerous and/or predatory sexual offenders' in an effort to help protect the pubilc from such individuals once they served their time in prison and were released back into society. The target offender was originally defined as someone who was guilty of a 'violent sexual act' on another human being, particularly a child.
The legal profession (both constitutional as in states representatives and criminally as in prosecutors and defense attorneys) has taken this original concept and law and have mutated it to include the least offensive and threatening offenses in any state's book of statutes, those of misdemeanors.
While several offenses fall into that area, one of the most exploited misdemeanors that can be ascribed as a sexual offense and used to assign someone to the sex offender registry is the misdemeanor of indecent exposure.
Most people guilty of this offense have some kind of psychological disorder in their life that predicated their acting on the impulse to 'show themselves' to others. While others, innocently enough, were just trying to take a piss on the side or back of a building, usually at night.
How does this inclusion of misdemeanor offenses in the use of the current sex offender laws and assignment to the sex offender registry really effect society? Let me give you an example from my own personal experience.
I am 58 years of age and have an impeccable career in IT spanning over 25 years. I am an Eagle Scout and a professional in every manner of description. I am also a cronic alcoholic and have been in recovery, alcohol free and sober since March of 2009.
In March 2009, I had warrants sworn out on me for indecent exposure in Lexington, SC. In December 2009, I plead guilty and was subsequently given 120 days in jail, fines and court costs, five years probation and was assigned to the sex offender registry, a life-long sentence with crippling effects.
The Judge hearing this case was given leeway by SC law to "use his own discretion" in deciding whether or not to assign someone to the sex offender registry. In fact, in the state of SC, the offense does NOT have to be sexual in nature to allow the Judge to do that.
While part of the Judge's reasons for doing so was a prior conviction in TN, approximately 5 years prior to this incident, his actions in sentencing me were done with prejudice and malice instead of with an attitude of help and rehabilitation.
He purposely 'held me in custody' for four days causing me to loose a $70K per year job with Blue Cross Blue Shield of South Carolina. Then on the fourth day of being 'held into custody' he sentenced me as described above.
Since being convicted and sentenced, I have lost everything I have. I have lost in excess of $500K in assets (2 homes in TN and 3 cars) and have lost all of my credit due to having to claim bankruptcy. I have been unemployed (unemployable is more like it) since the conviction because of being on the sex offender registry.
I am now living in an apartment on the back of a friends house and it is the only thing keeping me from being homeless. I don't have any money, no source of income, no family to depend on and cannot even buy my 3 beautiful Weimaraner dogs any food to eat. I am having to ask my friend to buy them dog food.
I consider my life at this point useless and I am considering suicide. All I needed was to get help with my alcoholism in order to not re-offend. Instead, I was treated in such a way in sentencing to guarantee that my life would be destroyed.
Can you really find any justice in that? You need to ask yourselves that question and consider drafting federal legislation effective for all states that prohibit them from assigning a person guilty of less than a felony to the Sex Offender Registry.
I hope each and every one of you will take a long hard look into how the states and municipalities across America are abusing this law and how they have created a 'rackett' to make money from non-felony, non-violent, non-touching offenses that by their very nature bring into question whether they were actually a sexual offense or not.
Maybe my death will end up not being in vain.
If you question any of this, please contact me immediately. Later may be too late.
LinkedIn Profile: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/forrest-ward/23/5ba/3b8
The original intent of the SOR was to make 'public' the information on 'dangerous and/or predatory sexual offenders' in an effort to help protect the pubilc from such individuals once they served their time in prison and were released back into society. The target offender was originally defined as someone who was guilty of a 'violent sexual act' on another human being, particularly a child.
The legal profession (both constitutional as in states representatives and criminally as in prosecutors and defense attorneys) has taken this original concept and law and have mutated it to include the least offensive and threatening offenses in any state's book of statutes, those of misdemeanors.
While several offenses fall into that area, one of the most exploited misdemeanors that can be ascribed as a sexual offense and used to assign someone to the sex offender registry is the misdemeanor of indecent exposure.
Most people guilty of this offense have some kind of psychological disorder in their life that predicated their acting on the impulse to 'show themselves' to others. While others, innocently enough, were just trying to take a piss on the side or back of a building, usually at night.
How does this inclusion of misdemeanor offenses in the use of the current sex offender laws and assignment to the sex offender registry really effect society? Let me give you an example from my own personal experience.
I am 58 years of age and have an impeccable career in IT spanning over 25 years. I am an Eagle Scout and a professional in every manner of description. I am also a cronic alcoholic and have been in recovery, alcohol free and sober since March of 2009.
In March 2009, I had warrants sworn out on me for indecent exposure in Lexington, SC. In December 2009, I plead guilty and was subsequently given 120 days in jail, fines and court costs, five years probation and was assigned to the sex offender registry, a life-long sentence with crippling effects.
The Judge hearing this case was given leeway by SC law to "use his own discretion" in deciding whether or not to assign someone to the sex offender registry. In fact, in the state of SC, the offense does NOT have to be sexual in nature to allow the Judge to do that.
While part of the Judge's reasons for doing so was a prior conviction in TN, approximately 5 years prior to this incident, his actions in sentencing me were done with prejudice and malice instead of with an attitude of help and rehabilitation.
He purposely 'held me in custody' for four days causing me to loose a $70K per year job with Blue Cross Blue Shield of South Carolina. Then on the fourth day of being 'held into custody' he sentenced me as described above.
Since being convicted and sentenced, I have lost everything I have. I have lost in excess of $500K in assets (2 homes in TN and 3 cars) and have lost all of my credit due to having to claim bankruptcy. I have been unemployed (unemployable is more like it) since the conviction because of being on the sex offender registry.
I am now living in an apartment on the back of a friends house and it is the only thing keeping me from being homeless. I don't have any money, no source of income, no family to depend on and cannot even buy my 3 beautiful Weimaraner dogs any food to eat. I am having to ask my friend to buy them dog food.
I consider my life at this point useless and I am considering suicide. All I needed was to get help with my alcoholism in order to not re-offend. Instead, I was treated in such a way in sentencing to guarantee that my life would be destroyed.
Can you really find any justice in that? You need to ask yourselves that question and consider drafting federal legislation effective for all states that prohibit them from assigning a person guilty of less than a felony to the Sex Offender Registry.
I hope each and every one of you will take a long hard look into how the states and municipalities across America are abusing this law and how they have created a 'rackett' to make money from non-felony, non-violent, non-touching offenses that by their very nature bring into question whether they were actually a sexual offense or not.
Maybe my death will end up not being in vain.
If you question any of this, please contact me immediately. Later may be too late.
LinkedIn Profile: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/forrest-ward/23/5ba/3b8
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