Category Archive for : ‘STATE BY STATE CONNECTICUT’

By Dave Collins

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — A convicted sex offender has made a “plausible” claim that providing his email address and other internet identifying information to Connecticut officials violates his free speech rights, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday in reinstating his lawsuit against the state.

The decision by a three-judge panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan mirrors other court rulings around the country that determined some states’ laws violated sex offenders’ rights. James Cornelio, a former New York City lawyer, was convicted in New York

Newsday

Lawmakers across the country are doling out tougher punishments for sex offenders – fromsatellite tracking to the death penalty – but a handful of states are starting to ease up onpenalties in cases of youths arrested for sex. Laws enacted this year in Connecticut, Florida,Indiana and Texas, and a bill waiting for the governor’s approval in Illinois, try to draw clearerdistinctions between sexual predators and adolescents who pose less of a risk, such as those caughtin the so-called Romeo and Juliet relationships. Even when adolescents are only a few yearsapart,