When it comes to sex offenders and laws that punish/govern them, it isn’t often that we can report good news. Here’s one tiny victory — For those of you who care about someone convicted of a sex offense, you already know that our society is especially unforgiving of such offenders and tend to lump everyone in the same boat. Also,…
Category: Court Findings
THE COMPLICATED STATE OF FEDERAL SENTENCING
Over the past 15 years, the United States Supreme Court has decided a series of cases that dramatically changed the constitutional landscape of sentencing in the United States. In the first of these cases, Apprendi v. New Jersey, 5 the Supreme Court addressed the constitutionality of a statutory sentencing enhancement. That enhancement provided for an increase in the maximum sentence…
Relief from the imposition of lifetime probation
Gary Douglas Peek seeks review of a term of lifetime probation imposed upon his conviction for an act of attempted child molestation that occurred between 1994 and 1996. We conclude that lifetime probation was not available when Peek committed the crime and therefore vacate the trial court’s order placing him on lifetime probation. CONCURRING: RUTH V. McGREGOR, Chief Justice,…
SJC ends lifetime parole supervision
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled Wednesday that it is unconstitutional for sex offenders who have completed their sentences to be subject to lifetime supervision by the state’s Parole Board, declaring that only judges have the authority to order additional jail time for criminal violations. The 6-1 decision ordered an end to the state Parole Board’s oversight of an estimated…