I have no sympathy for armed robbers. They need to be punished. However, I think it is a waste of resources to also put them on a sex offenders list because a minor was involved.

These lists are already a mess and are not working as a public resource. In many areas you have violent child molesters and rapists on the same list with teenagers who were in consensual relationships. Arguably someone who has been convicted of armed robbery is dangerous or potentially dangerous. Still...


Georgia law puts non-offenders on sex registry

By BILL RANKIN

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Sunday, March 15, 2009

Georgia’s sex offender registry has a peculiar twist: There are a growing number of people on the list who did not commit a sex offense.

The state’e sex offender law, one of the nation’s toughest, tracks most offenders until they die, dictating where they can live and work.

The registry is designed to keep a leash on child molesters, rapists and other sex criminals, who often remain dangerous even after they’ve served their time.

But the law applies to anyone convicted of kidnapping or false imprisonment of a minor, regardless if a sexual act was committed.

At 17, Darnelle Harvey took part in the robbery of a Dairy Queen in Chamblee. Brandishing a gun, he ordered a 16-year-old to lie down as the holdup progressed. This got him a false imprisonment conviction, and because the victim was under 18, Harvey became a sex offender.

Now 36, he acknowledges his mistakes.

“I’m no saint, I know that,” Harvey said recently. “What I did was bad, stupid, and I spent years in prison regretting it every day. But I’m not a sex offender.”

Some legislators agree.

The law was drawn so broadly that it has triggered another: the law of unintended consequences, Sen. Seth Harp (R-Midland)said.

“We’re trying to clarify it,” he said. “We need to concentrate solely on those who really are sex offenders so we know where they are to keep them away from children.”

Harp’s legislation amends a number of provisions, including requiring those convicted of kidnapping or falsely imprisoning a minor to be on the registry only when their crimes involve a sex offense. The bill recently passed the Senate by a 52-2 vote. It is now before the House.

Rep. David Ralston (R-Blue Ridge) said lawmakers initially passed the provision with the belief that anyone convicted of committing crimes of force and violence against minors should also receive the same fate as sex offenders. But Ralston said last week he was open to revisiting the issue.

The sex offender law has encountered legal setbacks. The Georgia Supreme Court has struck down certain provisions, including mandatory life sentences for offenders who failed to register a second time.

The kidnapping and false imprisonment provisions also face a court challenge.

A Fulton County judge recently heard arguments on behalf of a man convicted of false imprisonment during a May 2000 drug robbery in Gwinnett County.

“Doesn’t it sound screwy what’s going on here?” Superior Court Judge Jerry Baxter asked, when told Jake Rainer is a registered sex offender who committed no sex crime.

For Harvey, the distinction is not a small one.

When convicts serve their sentences, their debts are paid, and they are generally free to live and work wherever they can find shelter and employment.

But the sex offender registry is a kind of life sentence. Those on it cannot live or work within 1,000 feet of places children congregate, such as parks, schools, rec centers and swimming pools.

Harvey must now report every three days to the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office and provide a location where he stays, a requirement of those who are homeless, as he is.

His journey to the sex offender registry began with the 1990 robbery of the DQ.

Before the restaurant closed that night, Harvey and his co-defendant, Eddie Montgomery, waited nearby in the woods, watching.

Harvey told Montgomery he didn’t want to go through with it. But Montgomery pointed his gun at Harvey and said he had no choice, Montgomery said during his guilty plea. Harvey complied.

A 16-year-old boy, the first to emerge from the DQ, was ordered to lie down — the basis of the false imprisonment charge. When the others walked out, Harvey and Montgomery robbed them at gunpoint and fled with the cash. They were arrested two weeks later.

Harvey pleaded guilty and spent seven years in prison.

Harvey learned welding after getting out of prison, but he could not accept a job as a welder last year because he had to leave the state. He recently got a job doing repair work at Big Boot Ranch in Ellenwood, but he had to leave that because the ranch hosts parties for children.

“He wanted to work, wanted to move his life along,” ranch owner John Sturdivant said.

“If you can’t work, you can’t take care of yourself. When you can’t do that, it might lead to robbing or stealing. What’s left?”

About 90 people are on the sex offender registry for false imprisonment convictions and another 90 are on it for kidnapping.

Prison records indicate at least 33 of those offenders committed a sex crime when they kidnapped or falsely imprisoned their victims.

Donnie Lee Boone is not one of them.

In 1994, Boone and two others held up an Augusta restaurant. Because the men moved four employees, one a 17-year-old, from one part of the restaurant to another, they were convicted of kidnapping.

After serving nearly 12 years in prison, Boone was granted parole in 2006. But the parole board refused to release him because he could not meet the sex-offender residency requirements.

The board said he could not move in with his mother because her home was within 1,000 feet of a park, a church and a rec center. In 2008, Mica Doctoroff, an investigator for the Southern Center for Human Rights, determined that the church and park were 2,000 feet from the woman’s home. The rec center didn’t exist.

In April 2008, Boone was released — two years after being granted parole — and moved in with his mother.

Boone, 40, is now taking online computer college classes to earn an associate’s degree in business.

“I had to serve additional time for being a sex offender when I didn’t commit a sex crime,” he said. “It’s still unbelievable to us.”

ok, all of the stupid things that's happening to our country and around the world must be coincidence. it just happens to be more stupid things have happened under this 'war on terror' than at any other time in our history. it must be a coincidence that it all started happening after 9/11. wake up people!!! smell it coming because it's in your back yard right now and we're going to see more absolutely stupid crap coming in the near future. but don't worry, it's all coincidence.

they have also expanded the list of crimes that can be considered felonies. once you have a felony on your record, there are very few places that you can live. if the apartment complex owner sees you have a felony, you can't live there. you can't find work unless it's some meneal labor job because the insurance companies won't bond you. now they are convicting elementary school kids with felonies for the most ridiculous things.

"...Today, there are more than 500,000 sex offenders who are supposed to be registered in the U.S.; however, it's believed that 100,000 of these offenders are 'lost' in the system..."

http://www.amw.com/features/feature_story_detail.cfm?id=464

Seems to me they ought to be out looking for the ones who have actually commited Sexual Crimes against children , and are, REAL predators , before they go adding more of these to their lists.

JMO

their desired end would be to have every american be a felon and have been in prison. their getting close to it.

As a survivor of sexual abuse it irritates me when i see things like this. It's like the salem witch trials all over again, except this time its sex offenders. People who did not commit a sex crime should not be on the list. The only thing that will do is ruin the rest of their lives, cuz now people will wonder even if they are removed from the list.

you are very right on this. the sex offenders registry....is just that....not for thefts, drug charges, etc

in texas we can go online and see if there is a registered sex offender living close. but others might get confused if everyone is put in there that committed a crime. sex offenses have their own registry for a reason

My heart goes out to you...

You are correct...

The sex-offender registry should be just for Pedophiles and Child-molesters ONLY!

Most of their attention should be keeping up with them!

the do include offenders of raping adults as well

hmmm, i wonder what their reasoning for doing it is? whoever thought it up must be a good person because there is no bad people in the legislature.

disclaimer:
(this is sarcasm of course for those that don't read between the lines)

ask the people in charge in GA

you ask em

OMG... i was responding to your post. it isn't in every state...so you would have to research the reasons for it

have you ever heard the term "gun shy" well that would explain the position i'm in at this very second. i don't trust one single comment that certain posters on here post. i must operate under the belief that every comment made by these certain people is going to have negative intentions behind them.

then do your own research

Moving people from one area to another area inside the same space during a robbery is Kidnapping?????


Not only is the sex offender registery getting very confused, but legal definitions are getting very confused.....

this statement is very true and calls for an excerpt of the protocols.


"We must arm ourselves with all the weapons which our opponents might employ against us. We must search out in the very finest shades of expression and the knotty points of the lexicon of law justification for those cases where we shall have to pronounce judgments that might appear abnormally audacious and unjust, for it is important that these resolutions should be set forth in expressions that shall seem to be the most exalted moral principles cast into legal form."

A sex offender because a teenager was there? Stupid.

(((When convicts serve their sentences, their debts are paid, and they are generally free to live and work wherever they can find shelter and employment.)))

THIS? This is bullcrap! The debt is not forgiven. Jobs are almost non existant for felons....housing? Whatever.

Kat

it goes along with the belief that sex offenders can't really be rehabilatated

Sorry I ommited that, but I was more concerned about those who molest rape and kill Children and those whose Mental Capacity is "below normal"... (The Elderly/Mentality handicapped) than I was about what "Rape" is all about.

I apologize for this oversight... It was an unintentional error on my part!