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On Monday, Oct. 27, Judge Carol E. Jackson of the United States District Court in St. Louis said that while provisions of the law requiring offenders to keep porch lights turned off and to post a sign that says, "No candy or treats at this residence" were unambiguous, the law's other provisions, one of which prohibits "all Halloween-related contact with children," were unclear.
Jackson also ruled that two other provisions of the law -- whether offenders were permitted to engage in Halloween activities with their own children, such as pumpkin-carving, and what circumstances constituted "just cause" for offenders to leave their homes between 5 and 10:30 p.m. on Halloween -- equally unclear.
As written, the law provided a penalty of up to a year in prison for violations, a class A misdemeanor.
The judge made her ruling as the result of a court case brought by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of four Missouri sex offenders. All four are parents.
According to information from the Missouri Police Chief's Association, Clark's injunction applies only to Halloween 2008.
The association said Anthony Rothert, legal director of the ACLU for Eastern Missouri, suggested registered sex offenders statewide check with their county sheriff's department to see how they plan on enforcing the law. Rothert said the judge's order only applies to this Halloween, but he added the ACLU will continue working to get the entire statute off the books.
Saline County Sheriff Wally George said he has advised his officers not to make any arrests, but to submit incident reports to Saline County Prosecuting Attorney Donald G. Stouffer on Monday, Nov. 3, and "let him make the decision."
George said he has discussed the issue with other sheriffs, some of whom plan to make arrests despite the Monday ruling, but said he feels a little restraint is a better idea."
"I think making reports is the safe and correct way to handle this," he said.
See also:
Sheriff announces plan to enforce new sex offender regulations on Halloween:
www.marshallnews.com/story/1471342.html
On the Net:
www.semissourian.com/article/20081016/NE...
Contact Kathy Fairchild at marshallhealth@socket.net
Comments
karma is real, I have two children and a 2 and 1/2 year old grandchild.
The only difference between you and I is that I educated myself on the FACTS, instead of simply believing what vote mongering politicians, ratings hungry news entertainment programs, and the "we only care about how many papers we sell" newspapers have to say about this.
They have been feeding the general public nothing but myth, exaggeration, and downright lies on this topic for YEARS now.
You have a computer, I urge you to research and learn for yourself just how these laws you think are going to protect your child are actually DETRIMENTAL to their safety.
The National Center for Exploited and Missing Children even admit that no child has been abducted for sexual purposes on Halloween/Trick-or-Treat night in the last 5 years. I dare say we could go back a WHOLE lot further than that and STILL not find one.
It is NOT ok to continue to punish these people for crimes committed years and years ago. It is NOT ok to make their spouses and children pay for something they didn't even do!!! It is NOT ok to make a wife and her children sit in a dark house with no lights on at all from the hours of 5-10 p.m., and yes that happened in VA. The big bad sex offender that resides there wasn't even home, he was AT WORK.
If you are THAT afraid of registered sex offenders, then I say you should take your children out on trick-or-treat night yourself. It is not the government's nor MY TAX DOLLARS that should do your job for you. But that's what parents want today, it appears. No matter what the politicians tell you, they CANNOT keep your children safe by passing these moronic and absurd laws, but they're awfully darn glad that you believe their B.S.
What I'm waiting for is for the government to decide to take that this crap even further, and put ANYONE who has EVER been convicted of a crime, on a list, because now that they have gotten away with doing it to the sex offender, it's only a matter of time before they do this to everyone else.
With 1 in 99 people incarcerated in this country, and predictions are that this number is only going to rise, chances are you will have to deal with this kind of crap at some point in your life.
Then we'll see what you think of these great and wonderful laws.
Personally, I'm going to sit back and laugh my behind off.
In order to be able to make up these laws and get them passed, they have had to pretty much obliterate the contstitution of the U.S.A. But don't worry...you won't even notice it until you're arrested for breathing out when they said in, or you watch a loved one get chewed up in this INjustice system. It's going to be too late to change anything then...I can only pray that the people who live in this alleged "free" country WAKE UP.
Children who are too young to be allowed to go out trick-or-treating with a group of friends, should be accompanied by their parents, end of story.
Children in groups of 3 or more should be perfectly safe from the registered sex offenders in the area. That is IF their parents have taught them how to protect themselves.
FYI:
We published in the paper an Associated Press story about a reversal of the earlier ruling about this law. Here's the first few paragraphs:
ST. LOUIS (AP) -- A Missouri law aimed at keeping children away from sex offenders on Halloween night can be enforced in its entirety after a federal appeals court order Thursday, Attorney General Jay Nixon said.
The order means that the state's registered sex offenders do need to remain inside their homes from 5 to 10:30 p.m. Friday night unless they have "just cause" to leave, such as for work or a medical emergency. They must keep their outside lights off and post a sign saying they aren't distributing candy. They may not have any Halloween-related contact with children.
A three-judge panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday stayed, or put on hold, a lower court's ruling until it can consider the state's appeal and rule on the merits -- sometime before next Halloween.
U.S. District Judge Carol Jackson earlier this week ruled that two of four provisions in the law could not be enforced this Halloween.
The stay had been sought by Republican Gov. Matt Blunt and Nixon, a Democrat.
karma is real: I have two small children (7mo & 4 1/2 years) and I assure you that I have no use for these sex offender laws. They are based on emotion, not logic and fact. The FACTS are that sex offenders have the second lowest recidivism rate of all offenders. I would have a lot more use for a Domestic Abuse registry or a Drug Abuse registry as those crimes far more likely to be recommitted. The FACTS are also that many people are tagged with a "sex offender" tag because they were 17 and had sex with a 16 year old. Or they were 19 and had sex with a 17 year old. The reality is that most of the "sex offenders" on the list are not pedophiles. Yes, perhaps they made bad choices, but like other people who commit crimes, they have served their time and almost certainly had to endure therapy as well (which most other offenses aren't required to deal with). I'd rather keep domestic abusers from beating other people who don't know their history and keep thieves from stealing my car or burglaring my house. I know better than to let my children go trick-or-treating by themselves - don't you?
justus1...obviously you don't have any children! For those of us who have children we do care about sex offenders out and about in our communities. Granted that most good parents are out with their children on Halloween when they're younger, but it's still nice to know that there are laws to protect them. Maybe you should find something else to complain about, because this is a law that helps innocent children from sick perverts.
Just as I stated in my prior post (from the NCMEC):
"Halloween restrictions are increasing because of community pressure to protect children, says Kristen Anderson of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. However, she says the center knows of no child abducted by a stranger while trick-or-treating in the past five years."
I don't think you will find one, no matter how far back you go.
The largest percentage of abducted children are taken by a non-custodial parent. Are THEY going to have to stay home on Halloween too?
You want to protect your children, you start young. You teach them to obey you, so that when you tell them not to go inside of a stranger's house (and why, of course), the better the chance that they will listen to you. If a child, old enough to go trick or treating with friends, goes inside a stranger's home, someone hasn't done their job. But hey, don't worry, the government will just pass another law.
Personally, if we're going to have a sex offender registry, I think we also ought to have an burglars registry, a car thieves registry, and all the other crimes. Sex offenders have the second lowest recidivism rate (only murderers have a lower one) of ALL crimes.
Talk about a witch hunt for the 21st century and having to continue to pay for a crime after you've done the time!
What I can't understand is all of this hysteria. I'm 54 years old, and I'm here to tell you that SEX OFFENDERS existed when I was a child, the same as they do today. They just weren't major news like they are now.
Without all of these laws and restrictions, I have to wonder just HOW in the world I made it to adulthood!!
Could it be that my parents taught me what to do when I was out and about by myself? Could it be that my parents disciplined me, were not into "child centered" parenting, and because I knew if I didn't listen to them I'd have a whole lot more to worry about than a sex offender?
Children have gone door to door on Beggar's Night for how many years, and yet I know of not ONE case where a child was snatched off of someone's front porch and hurt in any way. Can anyone find me ONE case of this? Of a sex offender grabbing them and pulling them into the house to molest them? In my day, he'd have had to have big arms because he would have had to have grabbed 5-8 children at once. What child goes trick or treating alone? We were old enough to go without a parent, but we were never allowed to go alone.
Dr. Phil finally said something, on his show about "extreme mothers" that I agree with, and that was:
"The best way to protect your child is to teach them to self-protect".
It is the ONLY thing that has any chance at all of working. Laws, restrictions, and registries won't do it.
So, I'm sorry to say it, but parents? You're going to have to take a look at how it was done 40 years ago, and learn.
If you are frightened for your child to go with friends, then take them yourselves. It's as simple as that. But we can't do anything simple now can we? No, we have to come up with ever more ridiculous laws. Put people on house arrest, and threaten them with a year in jail if they don't post signs that say they have no candy, etc.
I can't believe law enforcement isn't laughing their behinds off. I would, but it's my tax dollars paying for this foolishness and I don't find that funny at all.
This country is on a "drug" called "sex offender hysteria" and it needs to rehab itself badly.
What would we do without the ACLU?- - - Live a safer life