Double Jeopardy is Fun for Everyone
So there’s a guy in Georgia who was convicted in 1994 of a sex crime involving a child. He served his time in prison and has been released. Because of the stigma of being a sex offender, the guy has been unable to find a place to live and is presently homeless. But, a new law says that he must register as a sex offender. The funny thing is, the law says that in order to register, you must have a permanent address. If you don’t register, you go to jail for life.
In Catch-22 format:
> Make it incredibly difficult to find a home or a job
> Require people to have a home to register as a sex offender
> If they don’t have a home–because previous legislation made it too hard–put the guy in jail for life.
Now, I’m not one to defend sexual predators who harm children. But, you have to be fair to people who have obeyed the laws that you wrote in the first place. To fix this situation, either: just give life sentences to people who sexually abuse children when they’re first convicted, or let this guy register without a permanent address (put a bloody tracking microchip in him for all I care). Setting a trap for someone so that you can throw them back in jail smacks of double jeopardy and is just plain evil.
By the way, the sex offender registry is a joke. In some areas, you can be put on it for peeing in public or mooning someone. You then have to register as a sex offender for life, and can’t do all the things that really bad sex offenders can’t do, like live within so much distance of a school, day care center, etc. I don’t understand why–if I murder someone, serve my sentence, and am released–I don’t have to go door to door telling everyone that I’m a murderer, but if I so much as show my junk to a 15-year-old I have to do the same. It’s absurd. If you hate people who predate on children, put them away for good. Get rid of the stupid sex offender registry, and figure out reasonable punishment for people who did stupid things involving beer and their genitals and let people get on with their lives.
Pulling this kind of crap on a homeless guy who served his time is something we should expect in a third-world country, not in the US. A legal system without integrity is something to be feared and overthrown.
