Saturday, February 28, 2009
Sunday, February 1, 2009
Punishing Americans for Old Crimes - Banishment
When a person commits a crime, and is sentenced or takes an offered plea agreement, that person enters into an agreement with the state which he or she is being sentenced for that crime.
The united states constitution and the constitution of every state in the union strictly forbids anyone from creating a new law that again punishes, or adds more punishment on that person for that same crime.
That is called Ex Post Facto law, or Retroactive application of law.
The United States Constitution says this:
Article I, Section 9, that "no state shall pass any bill of attainder or ex post facto law."
In the Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court, Harvard's Professor Laurence H. Tribe has defined a bill of attainder as a legislative act "that inflicts punishment without a trial."
The late Edgar Bodenheimer, professor emeritus at the University of California, identified an ex post facto law as a statute "that prescribes a greater punishment for a crime already committed."
When an ex-offender is forced to move from his/her home, thus having to sell it, cannot find another home within the law due to the residency “buffer” zones, get fired from their jobs due to being on the registry, cannot find a new job due to being on the registry, their husband/wife lose their jobs due to a significant other being on the registry, their children lose their friends and are harassed and bullied in school due to a family member being on the registry, thus destroying the children’s lives, ex-offenders are forced into homelessness and to live under bridges, harassed by police, neighbors and probation/parole officers, have to wear “I’m a sex offender T-shirt” or have a neon green license plate on ALL their cars, have “sex offender” on their drivers license and forced to renew their licenses every year, forced from shelters during tornadoes or hurricanes, cannot give blood at some places due to being discriminated against for being on the sex offender registry, denied housing due to being on the registry, signs placed in their yards inviting harassment and ridicule from the neighbors, forced to move when the neighbors start picketing outside the ex-offenders home, the list is endless.
I THINK THIS IS CRUEL AND UNUSUAL PUNISHMENT, BEYOND THE EXTREME!
If someone has served their time for a crime many years ago, and now the states come along with new laws… that punish that same person again for that one crime committed and served many years ago… that action is totally unconstitutional
What parent would punish their child again years later for someting they did many years ago?
It does not take a rocket scientist to understand this principle, so why do our legislators persist in holding to these unconstitutional laws? VOTES and Ignorance… that is why.
It is clear they care absolutely NOTHING for the children, men and women.. whole families who are devestated by these draconian laws.
The united states constitution and the constitution of every state in the union strictly forbids anyone from creating a new law that again punishes, or adds more punishment on that person for that same crime.
That is called Ex Post Facto law, or Retroactive application of law.
The United States Constitution says this:
Article I, Section 9, that "no state shall pass any bill of attainder or ex post facto law."
In the Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court, Harvard's Professor Laurence H. Tribe has defined a bill of attainder as a legislative act "that inflicts punishment without a trial."
The late Edgar Bodenheimer, professor emeritus at the University of California, identified an ex post facto law as a statute "that prescribes a greater punishment for a crime already committed."
When an ex-offender is forced to move from his/her home, thus having to sell it, cannot find another home within the law due to the residency “buffer” zones, get fired from their jobs due to being on the registry, cannot find a new job due to being on the registry, their husband/wife lose their jobs due to a significant other being on the registry, their children lose their friends and are harassed and bullied in school due to a family member being on the registry, thus destroying the children’s lives, ex-offenders are forced into homelessness and to live under bridges, harassed by police, neighbors and probation/parole officers, have to wear “I’m a sex offender T-shirt” or have a neon green license plate on ALL their cars, have “sex offender” on their drivers license and forced to renew their licenses every year, forced from shelters during tornadoes or hurricanes, cannot give blood at some places due to being discriminated against for being on the sex offender registry, denied housing due to being on the registry, signs placed in their yards inviting harassment and ridicule from the neighbors, forced to move when the neighbors start picketing outside the ex-offenders home, the list is endless.
I THINK THIS IS CRUEL AND UNUSUAL PUNISHMENT, BEYOND THE EXTREME!
If someone has served their time for a crime many years ago, and now the states come along with new laws… that punish that same person again for that one crime committed and served many years ago… that action is totally unconstitutional
What parent would punish their child again years later for someting they did many years ago?
It does not take a rocket scientist to understand this principle, so why do our legislators persist in holding to these unconstitutional laws? VOTES and Ignorance… that is why.
It is clear they care absolutely NOTHING for the children, men and women.. whole families who are devestated by these draconian laws.
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