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Ninth Circuit thoughtfully rejects attack on lifetime supervised release for repeat sex offender

By Douglas A. Berman

Based on "easy" facts, a Ninth Circuit panel today in US v. Williams, No. 10-30084 (9th Cir. Mar. 7, 2011) (available here) took the time to talk through thougthtfully its rejection of various challenges brought by a sex offender to his sentence to a life term of supervised release.  The facts made this case "easy" because the defendant had a prior state conviction of the sexual assault of children and because of [the defendant's] apparent obsession with child rape, as indicated by the pornography he possessed and his own statements." I suspect even a more sympathetic sex offender defendant with better facts would not have prevailed with constitutional and statutory challenges to a life term of supervised release.  At the same time, because I do see some special potential risks and costs involved in the imposition of lifetime terms of supervised release, I hope that such terms do not become too common-place for all federal sex offenders just because they may often (always?) be legally permissible...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on March 07, 2011 (boomark / email).