By Sandy . . . Vigilantes killing individuals required to be on a sex offender registry is nothing new. The first recorded case we found was in Utah in 2005. Since then these murders have occurred in Maine (a double murder), in Washington State (twice, both double murders), in Nevada, in California (at least four times), Texas, South Carolina, Pennsylvania, and at least another half-dozen states.

A significant number were cases where the murderers used the state’s registry to identify, locate, and slaughter their victims. One of the most horrific was when a couple, Jeremy and Christine Moody, tracked Charles Parker and, with gun and knife, slaughtered him and his wife Gretchen in South Carolina in 2013.

For shock value,  however, and horror verging on disbelief, it is difficult

to imagine anything more gruesome as what occurred on or about May 23, 2026, when Kian Neal slaughtered Robert Locke in Tennessee. Neal, who had been abused as a child, now–at 18 years of age–said that he decided killing someone on the registry would bring him justice. According to his statement, he used the registry to locate the registrant who lived closest to him, went to his home armed with a hammer, saw, and large trash bags, and beat Mr. Locke with the hammer repeatedly. When that was not totally effective, he choked him with the plastic trash bag ties.

Mr. Neal said that he then dismembered the body with the saw, put the body, hammer, and saw into the bags, and put them in a dumpster. Surveillance tape shows him loading two large garbage bags into a dumpster on May 23. Law officers have searched a landfill for the remains; they have not been recovered as of this posting.

This story is so fraught with tragedies that it is difficult to know where to begin.

It is a horrible tragedy that Kian Neal, for whatever reason, received no or so little help or therapy after his childhood trauma that he felt taking a man’s life would bring him justice.

It is a tragedy that Mr. Locke’s family, who reported him missing in late May, suffered the loss of their loved one in such an horrific manner and that, as of yet, they have no body to lay to rest.

It is a tragedy that persons who commit sexual crimes and are held accountable through our justice system are then marked, often for life, by public sex offender registration.

It is a tragedy that Tennessee, as well as the vast majority of other states, chooses to make the physical addresses of registrants available to the public in spite of the many, many known instances of vigilante attacks on the property, the homes, and the registered persons and their family members.

This all speaks to our justice system being broken, an utterly failed system when it comes to the handling of not only the persons who commit sexual crimes but also the persons harmed by them. For all of the millions spent on sex offender registries since their inception, they do not do what is needed.

They do not protect new victims from sexual crime; a very high percentage of all new such offenses are committed by first-time offenders. They offer no healing for previous victims. They impede, and are actually in conflict with, both private and state-sponsored rehabilitation mandates and programs.

And they facilitate vigilante activity against registrants. They allow disturbed men—and a few women—such as Kian Neal and others who have come before him to utilize the registry like a road map, locating and murdering persons they do not know out of some sense of twisted justice.

This particular situation has a relatively easy albeit temporary fix.

Whatever value is believed to be present by this information would still be accomplished with listings such as “500 block of Crawford Ave.” This would not stop vigilantes completely, but it would make them work a little harder to locate their victims. It could save some lives.

A “fix” of a more permanent nature will be much more difficult. That will require a revamping of sex offense legislation across the nation to reflect what addresses the needs of, not just victims, not just offenders, but society as a whole.

See the letter to Governor Lee here.

The post NARSOL asks TN. governor to remove registrant addresses from online registry first appeared on NARSOL.

By Philip

Charleston, WV – June 17, 2026 – The National Association for Rational Sexual Offense Laws (NARSOL) has filed a second federal

lawsuit in the Southern District of West Virginia challenging the state law that imposes a $125 annual fee on individuals required to register as sex offenders.

The lawsuit, Basham et al. v. Mitchell, filed on behalf of West Virginia’s 6,450 registrants, argues that the fee, which became effective on January 1, 2026, constitutes an unconstitutional punitive fine rather than a legitimate administrative cost.

The Challenge

Under W. Va. Code Ann. § 15-12-2(o), registrants must pay $125 annually or face property liens, regardless of their ability to pay. The state expects the fee to generate over $800,000 per year.

Where the Money Goes

According to the complaint, none of the collected fees are earmarked for sex offender registration functions. Instead, the funds will:

• first support mental health counselors, seminars, and training for current and former West Virginia state police employees—whether or not they work with the registry;
• then fund any other expenses “essential to the general operations of the State Police.”

The complaint emphasizes that no fees will be used for “sex offender notification, registration, verification, or compliance.”

Constitutional Claims

The complaint, filed under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, raises an Ex Post Facto constitutional claim.

Ex Post Facto Clause (U.S. Constitution, Article I, Section 10)

• Unlike the earlier Kaso v. Mitchell case, this lawsuit does not assert claims under the Eighth Amendment, the Due Process Clause, or the Equal Protection Clause. Instead, it focuses exclusively on the Ex Post Facto Clause.
• Plaintiffs argue that the annual fee constitutes a retroactive punishment because it was enacted in 2025 and later amended in 2026, long after their convictions and sentences became final.
• The complaint contends that the fee is not a genuine regulatory fee but rather a punitive fine because:
  • It is imposed solely because of a past criminal conviction;
  • It can be imposed annually, often for life;
  • Nonpayment triggers a judgment lien against the registrant’s property;
  • Revenue is used for state police mental health programs and general operations rather than registry administration.
• Plaintiffs further argue that the statute fails the punitive-effects analysis described in Smith v. Doe and Mendoza-Martinez, asserting that it resembles punishment in purpose and effect.

About NARSOL & WVRSOL

The National Association for Rational Sexual Offense Laws is a civil rights organization dedicated to promoting evidence-based policies and constitutional protections for individuals affected by sex offense laws.

West Virginians for Rational Sexual Offense Laws is NARSOL’s West Virginia state affiliate that advocates for registered citizens in West Virginia. We are working to make the 2020s ​a decade known for criminal justice reform, rational sexual offense laws, and restorative justice.

The post NARSOL & WVRSOL File Second Federal Lawsuit Challenging West Virginia’s $125 Annual Registry Fee first appeared on NARSOL.

By Sandy . . . Is there anything more despicable than a scam? Schemes that use fear to extract money from those already living in fear go a step beyond despicable. Scams targeting people required to be listed on sex offender registries have worked their terror for longer than ten years, and they show no tendency of ending.

NARSOL warned registrants and the general public about this odious, illegal activity as soon as we became aware of it, and our efforts were eventually joined by those of law enforcement.

The scams have never stopped, but we have recently been notified of increasingly sophisticated efforts.

These scams can vary to some degree, but they will involve some variation of this: A person representing himself as someone in authority in law enforcement calls people on the registry and tells them that they are deficit in something regarding their registration, probation, or a new law; that a warrant has been or will be issued; and that he can take payment and stop the warrant.

This is what you need to know.

Law enforcement will not telephone you with notices that you are delinquent in some area of registry.

They will NEVER, NEVER, NEVER ask for money over the telephone.

The scammers will sound totally professional and knowledgeable and real, but they are NOT.

Here is what you should do: HANG UP.

However, if you don’t, if you, for whatever reason, think he might be legitimate, ask for his name and tell him that you will call him back at your registry office. Then HANG UP, call your registry office, and tell them you are calling to report a potential scam.

For more thorough information, including some law enforcement warnings, here are a few of the previously printed pieces. Some of the links within some of the pieces may no longer work.

https://www.narsol.org/2023/11/law-enforcement-paying-attention-to-sex-offender-scams/

https://www.narsol.org/2021/08/be-sure-you-know-about-sex-offender-scams/

https://www.narsol.org/2021/06/new-scam-warning-out-of-virginia/

https://www.narsol.org/2020/02/beware-of-scams-targeting-those-on-the-registry/

The post Scams targeting people listed on sex offender registries are alive and well in the U.S. first appeared on NARSOL.

By Sandy . . . Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) Post 12226 was opened in the fall of 2023. There were roughly 5,000 such posts in the United States at that time, but this was the first—and so far only–one established inside a prison, the Sterling Correctional Facility, a state institution in Sterling, Colorado. At its peak, the post had 28 members, 24 of whom were men serving sentences, some for sexual crimes and for murder; the other four (4) were staff members. The post had been recognized for being very active, especially in the areas of fundraising efforts and providing support for incarcerated veterans.  https://tinyurl.com/2n8wzbjh

Almost exactly a year later, by fall of 2024, Post 12226 was disbanded. Learning of its existence, various veterans and social media commenters campaigned very vocally against it, and they were heard. The VFW changed its bylaws to disallow membership to anyone with a felony conviction, and the membership dropped below ten, the minimum number required for a VFW post.  https://tinyurl.com/2n8wzbjh

(If this sounds familiar, think of a hotel in Grand Rapids being intimidated by loud and angry voices and cancelling NRSOL’S conference.)

What a poor decision the VFW made. What if other organizations followed this ill-chosen example?

What if some of the more prominent religions protested the time and money spent on faith-based prison programs, and they were no longer allowed in penal institutions? This would mean that the incarceration-impacted population of faith would no longer have access to something important for their spiritual needs, something that for at least some arguably makes the difference between their being model prisoners or troublemakers. Many a prisoner has come to faith and repentance behind bars, some due to attendance at prison worship services. They may not all be sincere, but without doubt some are.

What if state boards of education, universities, and the American Library Association decided that their “product” was wasted on “criminals”? How many of the incarceration-impacted who were trapped in a cycle of poverty due to being functionally illiterate no longer had access to the reading classes that would give them better choices when they were released? A countless number would lose the opportunity to earn a GED, while another huge number would be denied learning the skills that would offer them more employment options in the brave, new technical world into which they would be released. Many colleges and universities offer classes in a variety of subjects and even associate and bachelor degree pathways. These programs are traditionally offered through prison libraries, which also offer reading for pleasure and research capabilities for the institutional population as a whole.

What if special projects developed for incarceration-impacted persons, such as visual arts, drama, and writing were deemed to be inappropriate for “sex offenders”? Since these programs have a proven track record of increasing pro-social behavior and reducing recidivism, there is realistically little chance of that happening. However, moving from the hypothetical—and highly improbable–to the literal, what does happen is that some persons, based on their crime of conviction, are deemed inappropriate to participate in the program.

The exclusion of persons with convictions for crimes of a sexual nature is found in a variety of prison programs, including the visual and performing arts. Seldom presented as an outright exclusion, the language describes the allowed participants for many programs as members of the general population. This would not normally include those convicted for sexual offenses, thus cancelling their participation–and them–efficiantly.

This negation of different forms of art created or performed by someone with a historic sexual offense conviction is carried beyond prison walls to life in the real world. Some years back, a  museum in Maine removed a piece of art because it was created by someone on the sex offender registry. Actors in multiple situations have been “let go” because they had sexual crime convictions.

This bias against “sex offenders” is less seen in creative writing projects. To its credit, when faced with protests against inclusion of a poem by someone bearing the “sex offender” label several years ago, Poetry Magazine stood its ground and kept the poem as part of a special prison edition. However, one extremely talented writer was tempted to give up his writing—not due to discrimination but because he felt responsible for precipitating the events that caused VFW Post 12226 to be shut down.

We have come full cycle.

A dismantled VFW post; a canceled conference; hypothetically canceled prison faith-based services, education classes, library, and arts projects; excluded visual and performing art projects—in prison and in life; a disheartened writer.

The answer for them all is short, simple, and the same: “We will not give up; we will not go away.”

Or, in the words of that same temporarily disheartened writer:

Whether marred by the nature of our crimes or simply by the fact of our incarceration, our work means little to many. But we must try to reach those critics with our writing, demanding our voices be heard, no matter the consequences. For that piece, the result wasn’t what I’d intended. Far from it. But the next time, with the next piece, maybe I’ll change a mind or two.

The post A cancelled VFW post and a cancelled population first appeared on NARSOL.