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Constitutionality Of Megan's Law

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On July 29, 1994, New Jersey resident Megan Kanka was lured into the home of Jesse Timmendequas, a convicted sex offender, with promises of seeing a puppy (Corrigan, 2006). Once she entered his house, she was raped twice, strangled with a belt, and suffocated with a bag (Corrigan, 2006). Timmendequas was arrested soon after and confessed to this crime (Corrigan, 2006). This event outraged Kanka's parents and the surrounding community (Corrigan, 2006). They used this tragic death to create Megan's Law as an addition to the Jacob Wetterling Crimes against Children Violent Offender Registration Act, which required sex offenders to register within their counties (Welchans, 2005). Megan's Law then added the requirement that the public be notified when a sex offender moves into the area (Levenson, 2007). While this law has support from many communities, it also has been under scrutiny by those questioning its constitutionality. The question is, does this law really protect communities or does it simply punish sex offenders after they are released? …show more content…

Bull that any law that "changes the punishment, and inflicts a greater punishment, than the law annexed to the crime, when committed" is not allowed (Constitutional Law, 1998, p. 1357). When applied to Megan's Law, it is clear that the law has a negative effect, so the real question is if notification is a greater punishment than the one already imposed on the offenders (Constitutional Law, 1998). Having people know of past crimes is not as punitive as actually being locked away, so this law does not violate the Ex Post Facto clause. The fact of the matter is that Megan's Law was created and passed in order to protect communities and prevent what happened to Megan Kanka from ever happening again. If there are some adverse effects later on for sex offenders, it is unfortunate but protecting the community from sex offenders has to be a higher

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The United States Supreme Court in the Packingham v. North Carolina first amendment case has ruled in favor of Lester Gerard Packingham. The state from now on may not bar social media access to registered sex offenders. The case’s build up dates back to 2002 when 21 year old college student Lester G. Packingham had a sexual relationship with a 13-year-old girl. For involvement with a minor he received a 10-12 month sentence, but having never met problems with the law, the judge required him to go on a 24 month probation and register as a sex offender. Five years had passed and in 2008 North Carolina forbid any person on the sex offender list to use any type of social media.

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Sex Offender Pleads Guilty to 1975 Murder of Maryland Sister The following research paper is about Lloyd Lee Welch Jr who recently pleads guilty to two first degree felony murders in the abduction and murder of two Maryland sisters from a strip mall forty years ago. Welch is now serving a long prison sentence for sexually molesting a 10 year old girl in Delaware. However, he denies he killed or rape the Maryland sisters. It was spring of 1975 in Kensington, Maryland, a time of feeling safe, and parents didn't think twice about wondering where their kids were and if they were safe.

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Megan’s Law How Megan's law came to be in 1994. Megan's law was made because of 7yr old Megan Nincole Kanaka. Megan was kidnapped by her neighbor, Jesse Timmendquas. She was then sexually assaulted and murdered. They found Megan's body the next day, July 30, 1994.

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1131 Words | 5 Pages

The same year Hendricks was facing release Kansas enacted legislation to address the civil commitment of individuals known to be sexual predators. The result was the Sexually Violent Predator Act, Kan. Stat. Ann. § 59-29a01 et seq. (1994), known as K.S.A. 59-2901 et seq.

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1265 Words | 6 Pages

The stakeholders who are affected by the law include children, parents and guardians of children, and law enforcement. All parties involved would benefit. With Caylee’s Law in place, no more innocent and missing children will have to go without justice and would be reported as missing in a timely manner. Parents or guardians and law enforcement will also benefit. If a child is reported under the requirements of Caylee’s Law, it will be easier to initiate the proper steps needed to find the missing child.

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1050 Words | 5 Pages

This is because the law is overly vast when it describes what the sex offender can and cannot due over the internet. This is unfair because in today’s world almost every website use reviews and opinion based comments. Many of these websites don’t require a user to have any sort of account or username. This means that any person, including minors, are able to use this website regardless of whether or not it is allowed, and the very possibility of a minor being on a website restricts it from the use of a sex offender. An example of this is Cooks.com, this website allows users to leave comments without requiring any type of account, email, or identification.

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1758 Words | 8 Pages

Megan’s law was exactly that. By keeping the public informed about who their neighbors were, parents and children alike had better chances of staying safe in their neighborhoods. On July 27th, 1995, Megan’s Law was introduced in the House. No action was taken until May 6th, 1996, when the bill was added as an amendment to the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement act of 1994.

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623 Words | 3 Pages

Leroy Hendricks, a serial child molester in the state of Kansas was nearing the completion date of his ten-year prison sentence for molesting two (2) 13-year-old boys. Mr. Hendricks was to be released to a halfway house upon release. However, that was not going to happen if the State of Kansas had their way. In fact, the State of Kansas sought to have Mr. Hendricks committed under its newly enacted Sexually Violent Predator Act (Act) of 1994. The Sexually Violent Predator Act was a set of procedures established to commit individuals who, due personality disorders or mental abnormalities were likely to engage in sexual violence through predatory acts ("Google Scholar", 2016, 350).

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763 Words | 4 Pages

One in five women and one in sixteen men are sexually assaulted while in college. 63% of sexual assaults are not reported to police and only about 2 to 10% of reports are found to be false. In Jon Krakauer’s book: Missoula, Rape and the Justice System in a College Town. Krakauer focuses on the many rapes that occur on the college campus in Missoula. Most of the rapes that happen on college campuses are done by men, but to say all men are rapists is unjust and sexist.

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To have a law passed under the name of a victim is world-wide changing, as the terrible acts could be restored into the criminal justice system today. Although, the circumstance of any law passed by legislation is too hard to understand why would anyone want to commit such a horrific crime, the answers, we may never know. As many Americans may remember it, the world stopped on July 15, 2008 as people heard across the nation on the news, radio, and perhaps social media. A two-year old little girl from Orlando Florida was missing, and her name was Caylee Marie Anthony. Casey Marie Anthony gave birth to Caylee on August 9, 2005 in Orlando Florida.

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273 Words | 2 Pages

The U.S. Supreme Court has found that the Constitution implicitly grants a right to privacy against governmental intrusion. This right to privacy has been the justification for decisions involving a wide range of civil liberties cases, including Pierce v. Society of Sisters , which invalidated a successful 1922 Oregon initiative requiring compulsory public education, Griswold v. Connecticut , where a right to privacy was first established explicitly, Roe v. Wade , which struck down a Texas abortion law and thus restricted state powers to enforce laws against abortion, and Lawrence v. Texas , which struck down a Texas sodomy law and thus eliminated state powers to enforce laws against sodomy. The 1890 Warren and Brandeis article "The Right To

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406 Words | 2 Pages

The Megan Kanka Law is a good law because our children are our prize

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799 Words | 4 Pages

It should negatively affect Turner’s life in the same way that his actions have negatively affected his victim’s. Prison having a severe impact on a criminal is hardly a problem. Judge Persky should be less concerned with the sex offender’s future, and instead direct his focus to the

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690 Words | 3 Pages

First off, the act should be renewed in order for exposed victims live comfortably rather

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1379 Words | 6 Pages

Should Sex Offenders Name be Public? It is debatable if sex offenders names should be public, some people believe is a invasion of there private life, “There is a real danger of vigilantism and publicizing their names (and the info required goes far beyond just their names) is an invasion of privacy of the wives, children and families of these offenders, which is an invasion of privacy no other class of criminal faces”(debate.org) . Others believe this is not even debatable, that Sex offenders name should be public, period, “Once somebody commits a sexual crime, they have given up their right to anonymity.

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