New sex offender bill would remove some from list, add penalties for noncompliance

A proposed bill recently passed out of the state Senate Judiciary Committee includes several different ideas to refine current sex offender law.

If the bill becomes law, any person who has been convicted of kidnaping, felony restraint, or non-sexual child abuse automatically would be removed from the registry on Aug. 28, 2006.

The proposed bill also allows anyone convicted of promoting prostitution, displaying sexual material in public, or second-degree statutory rape to petition for removal from the registry after 10 years.

Those who could be taken off the registry include anyone who has not had to register for another offense in the last 10 years or has no pending sexual offense charges.

"I think there needs to be a balance," said committee member, state Sen. Jason Crowell, R-Cape Girardeau. "We want to reward good behavior."

But Tammy Gwaltney, the director of Southeast Missouri Network Against Sexual Violence, disagreed.

"That is not something I would be supportive of," she said, stating that once an adult makes the conscious choice to commit an offense, he or she is forever an offender.

The bill also includes harsher penalties for convicted sex offenders.

Any sex offender who has twice failed to register will be subject to GPS tracking for 10 years, with each additional violation tacking on an additional 10 years.

Anyone found guilty of rape, sodomy, first-degree statutory rape or first-degree statutory sodomy will be placed on lifetime supervision and GPS monitoring.

While GPS monitoring may sound like a good idea, sheriff's Lt. David James pointed out that someone would be required to run the system, difficult to find in a stretched-thin department.

"We can't follow sex offenders every day," James said.

Missing from the bill are several suggestions that Missouri State Highway Patrol Capt. Tim McGrail considered important, including improving the online sex offender registry to include height and weight, a description of the charges or risk level of the offender, and whether a person was compliant with re-registration.

James said it is illegal for a convicted sex offender to live within 1,000 feet of a school or day care, but there is nothing wrong with that offender walking past such a facility every day of the week.

Crowell said several ideas may be generated when the bill is debated in the Senate. "Everything is on the table," Crowell said. That includes additional funding for local law enforcement to track and keep tabs on convicted sex offenders.

kmorrison@semissourian.com

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