Tiggeronmv of West Tisbury, MA The most interesting about this article is that the legislators are taking the time to investigate what does and doesn't work in reference to sex offender laws. They should be commended.

So many laws have been passed based only on the ideas that "We must be tough on crime", and "If this only saves one child". Unfortunately, we are beginning to see the results of leaping before we look. Nearly half of all former sex offenders have families with wives and children that are being drastically affected by these laws. A child hurt is still just one more child hurt. Are the innocent children of a former offenders worth anything less?

I am not saying that we don't need to have laws that protect our society. We do and I certainly don't want to see sex offenders who have no desire to change their lives released in a way that encourages them to continue to offend. But our laws should be based on what works.

Lets invest the Lyon's share of our time and tax money on education of children in an attempt to prevent abuse rather than just responding after abuse has happened.

In His service
Tiggeronmvreport abuse

Just Adadathome of Flint, MI The Constitution of the United States:
U.S. Constitution - Article 1 Section 9
No Bill of Attainder or ex post facto Law shall be passed.

What does this mean?
In the Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court, Harvard's Professor Laurence H. Tribe has defined a bill of attainder as a legislative act "that inflicts punishment without a trial." The late Edgar Bodenheimer, professor emeritus at the University of California, identified an ex post facto law as a statute "that prescribes a greater punishment for a crime already committed."

Any law, ...which inflicts a greater punishment than the law annexed to the crime when committed, is an ex post facto law. For example, a law cannot be created tomorrow which will hold a person responsible for something he or she does today. Laws are binding only from the date of their creation or from some future date at which they are specified as taking effect.

The Constitution Guarantees you the lawmakers cannot make laws which add punishment to a crime committed before the law was passed.

The sex offender registry violates the Constitution of both the United States and also The Good State of Louisiana in that it adds tons of punishments, PLURAL, upon men who have already served out their time. This hurts these men's CHILDREN by making them outcasts.

This means this law was put into effect in 2006. But if you committed any crime related to this law, no matter if it was 100 years ago, and you have already served your time, you would now begin being punished AGAIN for that same crime.

Whole families are having their lives ruined unconstitutionally and nobody is doing anything about it. These families have NO access to the courts as you have to be rich enough to hire a lawyer to stand up for your rights. Most can barely pay their bills. http://failamerica.blogspot.com/
Watch a video by one 14 year old innocent life ruined by Unconstitutional Laws.
Many professionals telling how these laws do not work. cfcamerica.orgreport abuse

Stan Moody of Manchester, ME "Recidivism rates. (repeating the offense) among sex offenders are the highest rates!"

I'm sorry, but you are totally uninformed...The recidivism rate for sex offenders without religious affiliation is 14.9%...For those with religious affiliation, it is less than 6%...If you knew the number of people I have met in prison who were nailed by someone with whom they had been having a sexual relationship and will now have to be on the registry for their entire lives, it would begin to hit home that you are only an angry partner away...

Pedophilia is one thing; gross sexual assault on another adult with whom you had been having a relationship is something very different in most cases...The Rape Shield Law in Maine prohibits a character defense against the "victim."

I am presently working with an inmate who was homeless and convicted of GSA on a crack/cocaine addict in which there was absolutely no physical evidence - her word against his and an inability to introduce into evidence that she had 2 samples of DNA in her vagina, neither of which was his OR her husband's...He was given 30 years which, at age 47 and his health, will be the rest of his life...If he gets out, he will be on the registry for the duration...

We are all potential victims of politics and fear...The great tragedy in Maine is that we are so subject to the Yahoo factor that breeds on ignorance...

Stan Moody
Chaplainreport abuse

SNAKEnCRANE of Augusta, ME Does it really surprise anyone that Attorney Walter McKee has his nose right in the middle of all of this?
Rather than being an advocate for the victim's and their families this attorney is always on the defense by trying to get sex offenders' names removed from the online site, as well as making a name for himself as Maine's Sex Offender Defense Attorney. He is a very good attorney, however, it's a shame that he is so well-known for his defense of these types of offenders. I guess it's all dollars to him.
It's as though when a sex offender does their crime, they have in the back of their mind...."If I get caught I shoiuld call on Attorney Walter McKee from Lipman, Katz, & McKee.
Perhaps McKee's tune would change if some sex offender got to one of his children or family members.report abuse