INDIANAPOLIS – An Indiana law that bans registered sex offenders from using Facebook and other social networking sites that can be accessed by children is unconstitutional, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday.
The 7th U.S. Circuit of Appeals in Chicago overturned a federal judge’s decision upholding the law, saying the state was justified in trying to protect children but that the “blanket ban” went too far.
The 2008 law “broadly prohibits substantial protected speech rather than specifically targeting the evil of improper communications to minors,” the judges wrote.
“The goal of deterrence does not license the state to restrict far more speech than necessary to target the prospective harm,” they said in a 20-page decision.
Continue reading Social media ban for sex offenders in Indiana tossed
A husband of one of my cousins was recently falsely convicted of child molestation by a psychotic ex-wife.
Any respect I had left for the court system of Indiana is gone after watching that charade. That show trial.
Look, I understand that people who molest children are the scum of the Earth and maybe people who actually do that deserve what's coming to them.
The problem with throwing the book at everyone who gets convicted of such an offense happens when you do what Indiana has done, and convict people without the state having to show any evidence at all of their guilt. None.
The only thing that sent him to prison for two years was his ex-wife's word against his.
So, when he gets out, there will be restrictions on everything from where he can live, to when he can go to Walmart. (late at night when there are unlikely to be children there)
My poor cousin paid a shyster defense attorney who promised he could beat the state over $7,000 dollars, and then the defense attorney turned around and did next to nothing.
When he gets out of prison, he will have lifetime registration as a sex offender and my cousin will have to sell their house and they will have to move out to the middle of nowhere to get away from schools, playgrounds, and people who get on the state website, see a sex offender list, and decide to be vigilantes.
People who are wrongly convicted, and I'm sure that it's far from just him, are ruined by the state. I'm not sure many of them could afford to get a computer and internet access by the time they're working whatever minimum wage job will hire them with that on their record.
The time for the courts to push back on this sort of stuff was when the state was creating this nightmare and lowering its standard of evidence to create a system where everyone who goes to court ends up behind bars. This is how the legal system in China works. This is NOT what should be going on in America. This is not what Americans should be doing to each other.
To get this level of punishment, the state should be required to PROVE that the defendant did do what they said he did.
Posted by: Ryan | February 01, 2013 at 02:46 PM