Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Criminal Law Blogs -> Sentencing Law and Policy

Criminal Law

: Sentencing Law and Policy

Notable Third Circuit ruling on process requirements for prisoner sex offender classification

By Douglas A. Berman

The Third Circuit has a notable prisoner rights ruling today in Renchenski v. Williams, No. 07-3530 (3d Cir. Oct. 4, 2010) (available here), which gets started this way: Plaintiff Charles Renchenski is serving a life sentence without the possibility for parole for murder in the first degree. Although he was never charged with, nor convicted of, a sexual offense, in 2005 Defendants classified Renchenski as a sex offender and recommended his enrollment in Pennsylvania?s Sex Offender Treatment Program (?SOTP?).  Renchenski filed this 42 U.S.C. § 1983 action alleging that his forced participation in sex offender treatment therapy violates several constitutional rights, including his: Fourteenth Amendment right to due process before being labeled a sex offender; Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination; and Sixth Amendment right to have a jury adjudicate his guilt...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on October 04, 2010 (boomark / email).