ATLANTA - Defense attorneys are trying to topple Georgia's tough sex offender law, saying it amounts to "cruel and unusual punishment" because it's by far the nation's toughest.
The critics asked the Georgia Supreme Court on Monday to declare the law's penalties unconstitutional, and they've targeted a measure that requires an automatic life prison sentence for sex offenders who twice fail to register.
Their argument focuses on the case of Cedric Bradshaw, a 25-year-old who was arrested for failing to register as an offender after he spent weeks trying to find a place that didn't violate the law's residential restrictions.
When Bradshaw was arrested in 2007, it was the second time he failed to register as a sex offender in Georgia. He was sentenced to the only punishment allowed by law: life in prison.
The measure is "grossly disproportionate" because Georgia is the only state in the nation that imposes a life prison sentence for failing to register, said Robert Persse, a public defender who is Bradshaw's attorney.
"In some cases, if he harmed someone or killed someone, he could receive a far lesser sentence," said Persse, who said that sentences for armed robbery range from 10 years to life.
Prosecutors say they were following the letter of the law. And that law was the will of state legislators, said Scott Brannen, an assistant district attorney in Statesboro.
He downplayed the life sentence, noting that Bradshaw could still be eligible for parole in seven years. And he said Bradshaw deserved to be punished for his crimes.
"He knew the consequences, and nonetheless he goes out and deceives the state again," he said.
It's the latest clash over Georgia's sex offender law, which sponsors declared one of the toughest in the nation when it was adopted in 2006.
The measure bans sex offenders from living, working or loitering within 1,000 feet of just about anywhere children gather. That includes schools, churches, parks, gyms, swimming pools or one of the state's 150,000 school bus stops.
It also increased the maximum sentence for a second failure to register from a maximum of three years in prison to a mandatory life sentence. The change applies to all sex offenders, from child predators to those convicted of statutory rape.
Several pending challenges take aim at the law's residency restrictions, including separate lawsuits that target provisions that would evict offenders who live near churches and school bus stops. But the Bradshaw case is among a new breed that focuses on the one-size-fits-all nature of the law's criminal penalties.
Bradshaw was convicted of statutory rape in 2001. Five years later he was slapped with 10 years of probation because he didn't register his address with the state.
After he was released from prison on related charges in August 2007, Bradshaw moved twice because he was violating the law's residency requirements.
Bradshaw's next move put him squarely in the crosshairs of authorities: He registered at a family friend's address, but instead moved in with a girlfriend. He was arrested 12 days later and sentenced to life in prison.
To Persse, Bradshaw was a victim of the fear surrounding sex offenders that borders on "hysteria." He asked the court to remember the words on Georgia's state seal: Wisdom, Justice and Moderation.
"This penalty is not wise," he said, "it's not just and it's anything but moderate."
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Friday
October 11th, 2024
10:17AM
