AZ: Arizona Registry Reform back on track
The Arizona Senate President has removed a big hurdle to the proposed reform that would allow more registrants to be removed from that state’s registry. The bill will now be moving to the senate floor for a vote.
Currently, most people who are required to register as sex offenders in Arizona are ineligible to ever be removed from the registry. Only people convicted of consensual sex with a minor who is at least 15 years old are eligible now, and only if they were under 22 years old at the time of the crime. HB2613 would make people convicted of a number of other sex crimes eligible to terminate their registration requirement. Offenders would have to be at least 35 years old, have gone at least 10 years without another felony or sex crime, and meet several other criteria in order to be able to petition a court to end their registration under HB 2613.
Bill Text: https://www.azleg.gov/legtext/54leg/1r/bills/hb2613p.pdf
Source: https://www.azmirror.com/blog/fann-removes-key-roadblock-to-sex-offender-registration-bill/
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“Reforming” the registry is pointless. It’s been “reformed” numerous times over the last 20+ years, and no amendment has ever accomplished one single thing toward the registry’s stated purposes – public safety and recidivism reduction. Sex crime rates and recidivism haven’t changed since the registry was enacted, and nearly all recidivism is for offenses based on or created by the registry itself.
This proposal is nothing more than an empty effort to appear reasonable to registry opponents. Very few will meet the criteria and even if they do, it’s still subject to the discretion of Arizona’s judges, few (if any) of whom would ever seriously consider relieving anyone of registry obligations, regardless of circumstance. Given the unusual criteria proposed, I can’t help but wonder if they were tailored to a specific registrant somehow related to one of Bower’s friends, family members, or campaign supporters.
Bowers may as well propose a law that makes it illegal in Arizona for the temperature to rise above 105 degrees before June. That proposal would probably have more effect than the registry “reform” he’s pushing for now.
But it’s a start–the beginning of a move in the other direction. First California and then Connecticut. A few state legislatures are beginning to reverse two decades of draconian laws. We can’t expect 20 years of bad legislation to be undone overnight.
This would provide relief for some who got caught up in stings or consensual underage sex, but, sadly, if your offense was NON-CONTACT possession of child pornography, you are excluded from relief:
“10. THE DEFENDANT WAS NOT CONVICTED OF A VIOLATION OR ATTEMPTED VIOLATION OF SECTION …. OR 13-3553.”
https://www.azleg.gov/ars/13/03553.htm
This illustrates, once again, that legislators like to punish those who they think will live out their fantasies. Punishment for a thought crime. Welcome to 1984 and Minority Report.
If I read this correctly you could not have done prison time on the charge. If that’s the case that eliminates most.