The Child Protection eNewsletter

South Carolina and Oklahoma approve death penalty for child molesters…
Oklahoma on Friday became the fifth state to allow the death penalty for certain sex crimes, although legal scholars questioned the constitutionality of the new state law. http://hosted.ap.org Under the measure signed by Gov. Brad Henry, anyone convicted twice for rape, sodomy or lewd molestation involving children under 14 can face the death penalty. South Carolina's governor signed a similar law on Thursday allowing the death penalty for offenders convicted twice of raping children younger than 11. Louisiana, Florida and Montana also have laws allowing the death penalty for certain sex crimes.

Vatican Appeals Ruling in Molestation Case…
The Vatican filed an appeal to a federal judge's ruling refusing to dismiss a lawsuit that claims the Holy See bears responsibility for a priest who was transferred from city to city even though he was known to be a molester. http://hosted.ap.org The 2002 lawsuit claims the Vatican, the Archdiocese of Portland and the Archbishop of Chicago conspired to protect the Rev. Andrew Ronan despite a history of sex abuse allegations, moving him from Ireland to Chicago to Portland. U.S. District Judge Michael Mosman ruled in his decision that there are exceptions to the Foreign Sovereign Immunity Act, under which the Vatican is typically immune from the jurisdiction of U.S. courts. Rejecting the Vatican's bid to dismiss the case, Mosman ruled that there was enough of a connection between the Vatican and the priest, who died in 1992, for him to be considered a Vatican employee under Oregon law. http://news.yahoo.com

Meanwhile, a Chicago priest accused of sexually abusing three boys pleaded not guilty Thursday to charges he abused two more children. http://hosted.ap.org Authorities said the two most recent counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse against the Rev. Daniel McCormack involve a 10-year-old boy and an 11-year-old boy. Prosecutors allege McCormack fondled the 11-year-old on "an almost daily basis" for nearly five months beginning in September. The Archdiocese of Chicago assigned a monitor to McCormack in August after molestation allegations first surfaced, though the archdiocese has said it couldn't confirm whether the alleged abuse occurred while McCormack was being monitored by a fellow priest.

Many of the records in lawsuits alleging sexual abuse by priests from the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles will remain secret before trial, a judge has ruled. http://hosted.ap.org Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Haley J. Fromholtz on Wednesday ordered lawyers not to disclose general background information and medical and financial records of individual plaintiffs and defendants.

From the it’s not just priests column, the former cantor of a prominent New York synagogue pleaded guilty to sexually abusing a young relative starting when the boy was 3 years old. http://hosted.ap.org

And Arizona's attorney general believes polygamist leader Warren Jeffs recently returned to perform more marriages involving underage girls in his church's community along the Utah-Arizona state line. http://www.baltimoresun.com

In other news...
Verizon has launched what it calls “chaperone service” which displays the location of a child's cell phone on a map, either on your phone or on the Web. http://abcnews.go.com Verizon's service follows Sprint's launch of "Family Locator," a similar service, in April.

Countless websites that glorify, promote and teach that eating disorders aren't a disease, but a "lifestyle choice," have sprung up. http://abcnews.go.com This, despite the fact that eating disorders are one of the most deadly mental illnesses in the country. Annie Hayashi, spokesperson for the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders (ANAD), says that 6 percent of people with eating disorders will eventually die from the disease. If you suspect that someone you love struggles with an eating disorder, we suggest you visit ANAD at http://www.anad.org

A Buffalo, NY teenager says he killed and slowly dismembered his mother over several days at the urging of a 50-year-old man he says was sexually abusing him. http://hosted.ap.org

As hospitals tighten security in maternity wards, kidnappers are instead preying on newborns in their homes and other locations, experts say. http://hosted.ap.org That's what happened in Lubbock this week, when police say a woman posed as a nurse, befriended the mother of a new baby, then went to her home and kidnapped the 4-day-old girl. Fortunately the child has been found.

A 16-year-old honor student from Michigan tricked her parents into getting her a passport and then flew off to the Mideast to be with a West Bank man she met on MySpace.com, authorities say. http://abcnews.go.com U.S. officials in Jordan persuaded her to turn around and go home before she reached the West Bank.

A judge will allow the public and the media to view a videotape in court that prosecutors allege shows singer R. Kelly having sex with an underage girl. http://www.cbsnews.com


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