RALEIGH, North Carolina – In a recent ruling the North Carolina State Supreme Court reversed a lower state court’s decision in regards to registered sex offenders and social media.
The court’s opinion Friday reversed a lower court’s finding that the 2008 law was unconstitutional. The challenge was mounted by a registered sex offender who was convicted of an additional offense after Durham police found his Facebook page.
North Carolina’s Court of Appeals had sided with the defendant in 2013, finding that the law infringed on free speech rights by preventing a wide range of communication. The law remained in place pending the Supreme Court’s review. – CBS News, Atlanta REPORT “North Carolina upholds ban on sex offenders using Facebook..”
I for one am glad that the state’s supreme court ruled this way BECAUSE it sets a precedent that habitual offense is not free speech. Even though the petitioner’s attorney argued otherwise before the court.
finding that the law infringed on free speech rights by preventing a wide range of communication … argu[ing that state] law was too broad and could prohibit routine Internet activity, such as using Google… – [Emphasis mine.]
But a Majority on the court pushed back siting settled state law on the matter…
“the General Assembly has carefully tailored the statute in such a way as to prohibit registered sex offenders from accessing only those Web sites that allow them the opportunity to gather information … The justification of the statute — protecting minors from registered sex offenders — is unrelated to any speech on a regulated site … Accordingly, the regulation leaves open ample channels of communication that registered sex offenders may freely access…” — Majority Opinion for this decision, written by N.C. Justice Robert H. Edmunds, Jr.
And even though eight states have similar laws all have been successfully challenged by such erstwhile organizations as the American Civil Liberties Union in as many years as such unprecedented cases like this one in North Carolina have been coming up through the state court system.
“There are few crimes more heinous than child molestation. Whether violently attacked by a stranger or preyed upon by a trusted adult in the home, school or place of worship, children who survive such assaults are often left to walk a lifelong path of sorrow and pain. … Megan’s Law, civil commitment, and the newest trend in anti-sex offender legislation, banishment zones, which restrict sex offenders from living within certain geographic areas, all play to the fears of the public. But when it comes to stopping sex assaults, these measures do more harm than good.
To understand why, one must look at the realities of sex crimes in America today. The vast majority of sex offenses are committed by trusted adults-family members, friends, clergy-and go unreported because of manipulation of the victims, unconscionable decisions by other adults, or both. We saw this most vividly when lawsuits uncovered that the Catholic Church hierarchy had hidden and ignored countless cases of child sexual abuse for decades, choosing to protect its reputation over the children under its care.
Unfortunately, this happens in family hierarchies even more frequently. … most common type of sex crime so often goes unreported, most sex offenders never become part of the criminal justice system and therefore are not affected by Megan’s Law or banishment zone laws. … We need to improve our systems for handling reports of abuse, looking to models like Wynona’s House in Essex County, which brings different agencies together to ease the burden on victims reporting abuse. And we need to provide mental health treatment for victims and offenders, in prison and out.” – Wrote Deborah Jacobs with the ACLU of New Jersey
And I agree with Ms. Jacobs premise in the last part of her posting…
“We need to improve our systems for handling reports of abuse … And we need to provide mental health treatment for victims and offenders, in prison and out.”
I am all for mental health, better reporting, improving and strengthening laws already on the books, and than when folks have paid their debit to society, beyond all reasonable doubt of course, then rights need to be restored and a return to life anew.
But only after such has been exhausted. When you do the crime you should do the time.
Prison should be prison, and the outside world should be a place where all people are free and equal to come and go as they please in so long as they aren’t hurting themselves or someone else.
North Carolina’s law bans registered sex offenders from accessing social networking sites “where the sex offender knows that the site permits minor children to become members or to create or maintain personal Web pages.” Facebook requires people to be at least 13 to sign up.
Until people are elected who are willing to challenge and change the laws as written then precedence is precedence, and if it ain’t broke don’t fix it….
–Rhett E. Column
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