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«««FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE—
Has Rep. Keen been misleading the public, by saying HB1059
is about saving children? If he really
wanted to make children safer, he would have sponsored a bill that provides for
the implementation of risk levels for all the current registrants, removing
low-risk offenders from the registry and protecting the Constitutional rights
of offenders’ families. However, by his
recent statement that this was the most "thought
out, the most well crafted legislation", we can only conclude he has
no compunction to deny some citizens of
HB1059 violates the following:
•
Ex Post Facto Clause
•
The procedural component of the Due Process Clause
•
The substantive component of the Due Process Clause
and the right to family privacy
•
The
•
The Free Exercise Clause and the right to freedom
of association
•
The Takings Clause
•
The right to interstate and intrastate travel
•
The Eighth Amendment by imposing cruel and unusual
punishment and by impermissibly punishing registrants based upon their status
Rep. Keen’s bill had a single intent, to drive offenders
from
On
HB1059 will cause the largest FORCED RELOCATION since
World War II. Of the 2,280, low or medium risk registrants, add in the
spouses, children, parents and siblings, and we are talking about 7,661
individuals this law will affect, 5,381 are innocent family members. Does
no one care about these thousands of innocent family members? Evidently,
Mr. Keen does not.
At the end of the day, Mr. Keen and the legislators who
voted for HB1059 failed to abide by their oath of office, to defend the
Constitutions of the
#####
The following Press Releases are from the (SCHR) Southern
Center for Human Rights:
«««FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE—
If the 1,000
feet restrictions of HB 1059 go into effect, the results will be catastrophic
for families across
“In addition
to being patently illegal, this law is a public policy disaster that will do
irreparable damage to thousands of Georgia’s families and make women and
children less safe,” says Sarah Geraghty an SCHR attorney representing the
Plaintiffs.
HB 1059
applies to everyone on the registry without exception– including people like
Wendy Whitaker who is on the registry because she, at age 17, had a single
consensual act of oral sex with a 15-year-old male. Because of this one
act, committed ten years ago, Ms. Whitaker and her husband are now being forced
from their home. Joseph Linaweaver was 16 when he had a single consensual act
of oral sex with his 14-year-old girlfriend. Because of this act, he is
preparing to leave his entire family and move to
The 1,000 feet
restrictions of HB 1059 prohibit people on the registry from living or
loitering within 1,000 feet of any child care facility, church, school or
"area where minors congregate," including all parks and recreation
facilities, playgrounds, skating rinks, neighborhood centers, gymnasiums,
swimming pools, and most problematically, school bus stops. People on the
registry are also prohibited from working at or within 1,000 feet of a church,
school or day care.
The intention
of these restrictions is to reduce the likelihood of sexual violence against
children, yet experts agree that residency restrictions do not promote
children’s safety. Rather, by aggravating the scarcity of housing options for
people on the registry, these restrictions sever people from treatment and
community support, and destabilize families.
The sheer
quantity of school bus stops throughout Georgia makes it extremely difficult to
find housing that meets the requirements of HB 1059 and the growing consensus
among local jurisdictions that the inclusion of school bus stops in HB 1059 –
which are unmarked and ever-changing depending on the needs of each
neighborhood- makes these restrictions vague and unworkable and inadvertently
dilutes the integrity and reliability of the registry itself.
This lawsuit
is being filed Tuesday morning in US District Court for the Northern District
of Georgia in
#####
«««FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE—
The Court today ruled that law enforcement
officials in
We are in this mess because HB 1059 was a sloppily
written and counterproductive law. It was intended to destroy lives by
forcefully evicting thousands of Georgians from their homes, and that would
have made all of us less safe in the process. The Court's decision today
saved us from such a disaster.
Majority Leader Jerry Keen's law was so badly
written that it forced
The Order also said that if a local school board
wants to force people like Wendy Whitaker -- who is on the registry for one
consensual act of oral sex with a classmate when she was in high school -- out
of their homes, they must take additional steps before doing so. The Court made
it clear that school boards do not have to take such a drastic
step. In fact, it warned that school boards rushing in to designate bus
stops "may only result in delay, confusion, and inconsistent actions."
We agree: the function of school boards is to make
our schools function, not to act as the police. It's up to the sheriffs
to protect public safety, and the sheriffs have made it clear they don't like
having to throw people like Joseph Linaweaver – who is on the registry for
having one-time consensual sex when he was 16 with his 15 year old girlfriend
-- out of their homes.
We have all seen how public opinion on HB 1059
turned completely around. In just over a month, we have gone from the
Governor defending a law that most people thought was a good idea to the
Governor's own lawyers backing away from a law that everyone now knows
is a disaster. One reason for the 180 degree turnaround is because people
were surprised to learn that people like Wendy Whitaker and Joseph Linaweaver
are on the registry.
Another reason for this shift in public opinion is
that people started to learn how counterproductive residency restrictions are
to public safety. The State's own expert during the Preliminary
Injunction hearing agreed that residency restrictions that destabilize people
are bad for public safety. The Georgia Parole Board's own studies agree.
#####
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