Petition by:
Baltimore, United States
My name is Barbara Moore; I am a mother, a grandmother and an advocate, who is passionate about bringing awareness to child molestation, sexual abuse and rape. My daughters were molested by my oldest brother, whom I had him arrested and prosecuted, however he barely did two years in prison for his crime. Although, I was disappointed he did not get more jail time, I was very happy that he had to register as a sex offender on the Maryland State Sex Offender's Registry. This registry makes the general public aware of the names, addresses, etc... off the sex offenders that moves into our neighborhoods, which is one of the tools we use to keep ourselves and our children safe.
Because of the sexual abuse committed against my daughters I decided to create a organization named" CAN'T CLOSE MY EYES" to become a voice for children and adult survivors of child sexual abuse. While we are just beginning, we find out that the MARYLAND COURT OF APPEALS RECENTLY RULED TO HAVE HUNDREDS OF SEX OFFENDERS NAMES REMOVED FROM THE MARYLAND STATE SEX OFFENDER'S REGISTRY, because their constitutional rights were being violated because their crimes were committed before October 1995 when the sex offender's registry was implemented and made a law. This was a huge slap in face to their victims, the residents/parents of Maryland, and the general public as a whole.
This decision have me deeply concerned about the safety of the citizens in Maryland, or any other state that these sex offenders will be able to move to without little to no accountability. These individuals will be placed back into the pool of thousands of sex offenders who live amongst us, and have never been convicted or arrested for their sexual offenses. When these individuals’ names are removed from the sex offender's registry, they can relocate and become our children's coaches, Sunday school teacher's and scout masters, the mere thought of that is very scary to me. We as human beings are sometimes too trusting and we try to give people the benefit of the doubt, but when our instincts tell us that something is not right, we should definitely listen to it, because more than likely it is true. Each time, more than once, when I listened to that instinct and checked the sex offender's registry list, I found that person on there, that my instinct questioned. With these names removed, from the registry, how will we know who is in our environment and around our families. Some, individuals on that sex offender's registry list are serial rapist and repeat child molesters, just like my brother who had many victims dating back more than 40 years, however, he was not exposed, arrested or convicted until 16 years ago. There is no guarantee that these individuals will not offend again.
The attorney for these sex offenders argues that the state of Maryland is violating her client's ex post facto or double jeopardy, protections, and civil rights. WHERE ARE OUR CIVIL RIGHTS AND PROTECTION! Please sign this petition to request that our Governor Martin O’Malley’s office and the Attorney General office take this battle to the next level, even if it’s the SUPREME COURT to be reexamined, for the sake of the safety of the citizens of Maryland especially OUR CHILDREN
Signing this petition can not only possibly have the Maryland Courts of Appeals ruling overturned to keep all of the more than 8, 0000 convicted sex offender's names on the Maryland sex offender's registry, it can also, possibly SAVE SOMEONE'S LIFE.
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