County Attorney Bill Montgomery is supporting a bill in the Arizona House that would allow more registrants to become eligible to have their names removed from the Arizona’s sex offender registry.
However, the bill would also add new requirements for anyone who wants to be removed from the registry. They must be at least 35 years old, and cannot have been convicted of more than one offense involving more than one victim. The bill specifically excludes a host of offenses, including sexual assault, child molestation, child prostitution, child sex trafficking or sexual exploitation of a minor. The bill would keep in place a pre-existing exclusion for anyone deemed by the court to be sexually violent.
Bill Text: https://apps.azleg.gov/BillStatus/BillOverview/72249?SessionId=121
Correct me if I am wrong, as I often am as an old man now … the only thing left that wasn’t mentioned was child pornography, right? So, you can file to be removed from the registry if you viewed child porn?
This bill will not affect the Arizona registry at all. It’s more fluff and bluster to appease registry oppositionists while maintaining the status quo.
If he wanted a bill that reflected research like he claims, he would be trying to abolish the registry en totem. But in the end, he’s just another politician trying to make a name for himself.
I wonder, should this bill become law, whether registered citizens from other states (like Florida) who move to Arizona would be eligible for termination of registration requirements. This bill indicates that the victim must have been at least 15 years old. In my case, the court ruled that SOMETIME between the victim’s 14th and 16th birthday, I committed a sex offense. I guess I’d better order a transcript of my sentencing (if one was actually recorded), when the judge acknowledged that my “crime” was consensual (another Arizona bill requirement).
@ RayO,
I would think you’d be eligible for relief under this bill. But if I’m not mistaken, Arizona requires registration if you are registered in another state, regardless of whether or not the conduct in the other state constitutes a crime in Arizona.
We need to get out of the mindset that proposals like this are intended to reduce the registry or to make it useful or more “fair.” These are not the “baby steps” many of us think need to be taken, they’re sidesteps. None of them will change anything about the registry’s effectiveness, the number of registrants, or its constitutionality.
Arizona follows the registration duration of your initial sentence.
Thanks for this info, Dustin and Registrant.