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Georgia parole board's secret votes forgive sex offenders
Key Excerpts from Article on Website of Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Posted: September 30th, 2018
https://www.myajc.com/news/georgia-parole-board-secret-votes...
Barry Davis stood before a judge and admitted to a horrific crime: aggravated sodomy of a 6-year-old girl. Davis served two years in prison and eight on probation, and his name was to live forever on an ignominious list: Georgias sex offender registry. But suddenly last year, all was forgiven. Georgias parole board granted Davis an unconditional pardon, recognizing his restored reputation and absolving ... him of his crime. The board did so without notifying Davis victim, her family, or the prosecutor and judge who sent him to prison. And now Davis, like at least one other pardoned child molester from Georgia, says he no longer has to comply with the states restrictions on sex offenders. Davis case underscores the near-absolute autonomy exercised by Georgias Board of Pardons and Paroles, a government agency that is not accountable to legislators, judges, or even the governor who appoints its members. The board classifies almost all material in its files as confidential state secrets. The board does not meet in public to consider cases. It announces no justification for its decisions. Without oversight or transparency, the board quietly restored the firearms rights of more than 1,400 felons in six years. In Davis case, the board apparently relied only on information that Davis himself assembled. So the board didnt hear about his victims years of psychological therapy. And it learned nothing about Davis efforts, as late as 2011, to persuade the victim to claim the crime never happened.
Note: Some progress has been made in years since this article was published, but there are still serious problems. For more along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing news articles on sexual abuse scandals and judicial system corruption.
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