Atlanta, USA - A provision of Georgia’s sex-offender law that prohibits offenders from volunteering at places of worship should be struck down because it criminalizes religious conduct, a lawyer argued Thursday.
Because of the provision, offenders cannot sing in adult choirs, play the piano during services, attend adult Bible study classes, serve as a pallbearer at a friend’s funeral or give their testimonies to congregations, Atlanta lawyer Gerry Weber told a federal judge.
During the last session, the General Assembly amended the sex-offender law, which already made it a crime for an offender to be employed at a church. The new provision makes it a crime to “volunteer.”
If convicted, an offender faces at least 10 years and no more than 30 years in prison.
Georgia is the only state in the nation that makes it a crime for a sex offender to volunteer at a place of worship, Weber, a lawyer with the Southern Center for Human Rights, told U.S. District Judge Clarence Cooper.
The law also does not define what “volunteer” means, Weber said. For this reason, no offender wants to risk volunteering at a church and face at least 10 years in prison, he said.
Joe Drolet of the state Attorney General’s Office asked Cooper not to strike down the provision.
The law, Drolet said, does not bar anyone from attending church. There also are valid reasons why the law is important to keep offenders from carrying out volunteer work at a church, he said.
People who are allowed to do volunteer work at a church are “presumed to be OK, but they might not be OK,” Drolet said. “They might be extremely dangerous.”
Lori Sue Collins, a member of the Mount Paran Church of God, said she stopped giving testimonials at churches about the redemptive power of Christ because she is fearful of being prosecuted.
Practicing one’s religion goes beyond attending services, she said. “I’m required by my faith the give back,” said Collins, 47, convicted of statutory rape for having sex with a 15-year-old boy in 2002. “Every time I share, I heal more or reach someone.”
Cooper deferred ruling on the “volunteer” provision until deciding whether the case should be certified as a class action.
The lawsuit, filed in 2006, seeks to strike down provisions of the law that make it a crime to live or work within 1,000 feet of designated areas where children congregate. The suit also class-action status on behalf of the 16,000 people on Georgia’s sex-offender registry.
Cooper said he believed that a class action would be “an efficient way to resolve the constitutional claims.” But he asked lawyers for the offenders to consider pursuing claims on behalf of smaller groups or “sub classes” of offenders.
Separately, Cooper declined to stop the removal of the case’s lead plaintiff, Wendy Whitaker, from her home about 20 miles west of Augusta. Whitaker, 29, is on the sex-offender registry for having consensual oral sex with a 15-year-old classmate when she was 17.
In July, Whitaker was told a sheriff’s deputy she had to move out of her home within 72 hours because her house was within 1,000 feet of a day care center.
If forced to move, Whitaker testified, fighting back tears, the home will go into foreclosure because she cannot afford both rent and a mortgage.
Her lawyer, Sarah Geraghty, presented evidence to Cooper showing there is hardly anywhere left in Columbia County for Whitaker to live when authorities begin enforcing a provision of the law that makes it illegal for an offender to live within 1,000 feet of a school bus stop.
Making Whitaker move “is both pointless and cruel, Geraghty said. “A teenager shouldn’t be punished in perpetuity, especially one who poses no threat to society.”
Drolet conceded it would be inconvenient for Whitaker to move. But there are places for her to live in Columbia County and nearby counties, he said. Cooper agreed.