NO REGISTRATION EMANCIPATION
Sex offenders in New York who had been required to register with the state for just a decade are now required to register for life, a federal appeals court has ruled. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit threw out an agreement between sex offenders convicted before a 1996 law created a sex offender registry, and the state. That agreement allowed the 4,400 sex offenders to be registered until 2006, at which point the no longer had to register. A trial court had upheld the agreement, but yesterday a three-judge appellate panel reversed it, allowing a new state law requiring life-long registration for the offenders to go into effect. 

UNDER THE INFLUENCE?
The Advisory Committee on Judicial Ethics, part of the New York state court system, concluded that judges should not recuse themselves from cases where state legislators or members of their firms are representing parties before them. The issue came up because of controversy about whether it was proper for judges hounding the legislature for a pay hike to recuse themselves on cases in which part time legislators – who are also lawyers – are representing clients. Chief Administrative Judge Jonathan Lippman had requested an opinion from the committee after getting queries from judges on the matter, the New York Law Journal reports. The article notes that some judges aren’t completely satisfied with the ruling because they say it does not adequately address the heart of the issue: a lawsuit pressing for a salary increase filed by a few jurists against lawmakers. A registration-free story from Newsday is here.

THE PLOT THAT NEVER WAS
A federal judge in Albany has sentenced two Muslim immigrants each to 15 years in prison for agreeing to help in a fictitious terrorism plot concocted by federal agents. Yassin Aref and Mohaamed Hossain denied any wrongdoing or involvement in terrorism, the New York Times reports. But a jury convicted the men for conspiring in a supposed illegal arms deal proposed to them by undercover agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Supporters of Aref, an Iraqi refugee and imam, and Hossain, a Bangladeshi immigrant and pizzeria owner, said the men – who have spotless criminal records otherwise – were entrapped and did not deserve the punishment. Prosecutors said they were trying to “prevent the next 9/11.” U.S. District Judge Thomas McAvoy made 30-year terms for the men concurrent, so they are sentenced to serve 15 years.
The Albany Times Union's editorial criticizing the sentence - and Judge McAvoy - is well-worth reading.

PAUPER PROOF?
State Sen. Efrain Gonzalez Jr. might wish he were printing money. Instead, he’s making copies of documents for a lawsuit stemming from his indictment for taking more than $400,000 from a charity for children in the Bronx. And his lawyer told a federal judge yesterday that the court will have to pay, the Daily News reports. Gonzalez doesn’t have the $4,000 he says it will cost to copy the 40,000 pages of documents prosecutors have amassed in the fraud case against Gonzalez and three others. Gonzalez has a week to prove he is a pauper.