SC Legislature can’t keep delaying fix on sex-offender registry
Nearly a year ago, as The Post and Courier’s Seanna Adcox reminds us, the high court ruled unanimously that South Carolina’s toughest-in-the-nation sex offender registry is unconstitutional, because it gives an unappealable lifetime sentence to people most of us wouldn’t think of as dangerous sex offenders.
And the Legislature did nothing. For nearly 11 months, and counting. Three lawmakers introduced bills to create an appeals process, although that wasn’t until late February — eight months after the court order. The House bill is still sitting in committee, where it appears not to have gotten any attention. The Senate bill was assigned to a subcommittee last month, but members of the Senate Judiciary Committee haven’t yet worked out a path forward.
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What Percent of the SC Lawmakers are up for Re-election?
That is the Real Question to Pose!
Thanks
Of course that’s why they’re dragging their feet and semi-stonewalling.None of them wants to give the other side a free attack-ad and sink their chances at getting re-elected. All that CP boogeyman show during Judge Jackson’s confirmation hearings is still fresh on people’s minds. This whole thing is so damn predictable.
At least I think that’s what it does, but check my facts:
https://www.kpvi.com/news/national_news/jordan-initiative-strengthens-sex-offender-bill/article_19f7cddb-fe5d-5c01-a8ed-2ee597763890.html
I’d like to know exactly how many sex crimes in the last ten years or so were the result of the “on-line grooming” and of those, how many were a) those stupid FBI, ICAC, or private citizen “look at me protecting children” stings, and b) by someone on the registry.
Experiment idea: Felonize those stupid stings and then see how much sex crime beginning with “on-line grooming” occurs. Don’t even have to write new law for it – encouraging someone else to commit a crime makes one liable for that crime (at least in Georgia, not that they have ever prosecuted as such).
How about a bill to prevent cops and other adults from using the internet to pose as minors in order to lure people into committing crimes?
What South Carolina should come as no surprise. They have the Michigan model to go by. After years of the appeal process, a federal judge FINALLY orders them to rewrite the state’s SORA, and the Legislature simply passed another law that is unconstitutional. And even if South Carolina created a method for registrants to appeal for removal, it would still be left in the hands of judges who are anxious to get reelected.