Sex offender registry law in Pa. facing life-or-death test at Supreme Court
The landmark Pennsylvania law that for nearly a quarter of a century has required a public registry of sex offenders and community notification about their whereabouts is facing a life-or-death challenge before the state’s highest court.
Enacted nearly 25 years ago, Megan’s Law was hailed as a pivotal step toward making communities safer by empowering the public with information about where sex offenders live. Now, five separate cases before the state Supreme Court are attacking it as outdated, discriminatory, and unnecessarily cruel, depriving thousands of people of their fundamental rights.
The cases challenge nearly every aspect of the law, which has undergone several incarnations since being signed in 1995, one year after the death of 7-year-old Megan Kanka. The New Jersey girl was raped and killed by a neighbor who, unbeknownst to her family, was a twice-convicted pedophile. Similar laws were adopted across the United States and at the federal level.
Prosecutors believe the pending cases could gut Pennsylvania’s law, allowing sexually violent predators to evade detection and endangering public safety. They also warn that the law’s best-known aspect — the website that lists the thousands of offenders in the state — could be watered down or dismantled. In the last year alone, the website received 411 million page views, state records show.
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How long were the 3 sex offenders living across the street from the Kanka family? 1-2- years? and the Kanka family had not known? Please,, neighborhood gossip did not reach them yet? Please.
Once again, the hatred for registrants is expressed in the comments by the “good” people of PA. Once again, the only rational voice is attacked. If America was a “direct” democracy, we would all be dead.
I have no problem with putting pedophiles in prison. Why was this guy out in the first place? So they decided to punish everyone no matter how slight the crime resembled a sex crime. Because of this police departments mistakes they decide to punish hundreds of thousands of people who are not a danger to anyone just to cover up there mistakes. Why can’t we force the police department that screwed up to admit there mistake and do better from then on instead of trying to put the blame on something else just to make them look good. But then that wouldn’t be the American Way , would it?
it was a deliberately staged crime. red flag crime. The registry is similar to the patriot act. neither could get passed with out a horrific tragedy. So just like 9/11 when you dont have a tragedy to justify the criminal law you want to pass, you just create one.. We all know that people guilty of his crimes don’t walk the streets after conviction. they serve 40 plus years to life.so why was he free?..hmm… He was released because they knew he was dangerous and they needed a criminal capable of a horrific crime..there were probably a few like him released just to make sure someone would commit what they needed….You say conspiracy, and no way the government would do that?..I say use your browser and research just what your government has admitted to, then tell me what they are capable of..
I agree with you about 9/11 and the registry: Created by. The same guy!
On top of that, researching The Finders (Tallahassee!), and also The Franklin Cover-Up by DeCamp. And Ted Gunderson and Cathy O’Brien’s story, it starts to make sense what’s really going on. There are even holes to Wetterling’s story that makes one wonder the same thing.
The end of the registry = the end of an error.
I see what you did right there. That’s pretty funny.. And very true.
Look I am going to be the first to say it, there needs to be a registry that works and keeps track of the most despicable offenders, but there also needs to be some serious thought into the laws that effects the people who are not a risk as well.
High-risk offenders don’t need a registry, either. Unless it’s some sort of registry that protects the community from sex crimes, but I’ve yet to see anyone devise such a thing. And what do we do about a despicable offender who is desperate to find ways to be, well, less despicable?
Of course you aren’t the first to say it and you are just as wrong as all of the rest of the Registry Nazis. There is no need for a Registry. Registries also aren’t useful or beneficial. It is very trivial to understand why.
No American can support Registries. Anyone who does needs to be listed on one.
Registries = round up the “Usual Suspects”
So what’s ok to just simply let serial molesters and child rapists or murderers free without some form of tracking for the public? A registry for those can work, but the current overboard one we have now needs changing.
People convicted of child rape, or of multiple counts of molestation, don’t get to go free in general. Not for a long, long time. Not until long after they’ve committed the act for which we label them a child rapist or serial molester. And upon release, they are not free of tracking. The parole office sees to that.
It’s possible that we could devise a registration scheme that could provide protections to the public beyond what jail and supervision already provide. But I have not seen such a scheme devised yet.
Larry Nassar and Jerry Sandusky were never on a sex registry and never will be. Our registration system did nothing to protect their victims from harm. And isn’t that what the purpose of registration was supposed to be in the first place?
I don’t disagree that, as long as we are going to have a registry, high risk and low risk offenders should be subject to different sets of rules, including incentives for high risk offenders to take steps to lower their risk level. But Florida does not even have that. So I am just trying to look at the big picture here.
Nope. Registries don’t work. I’ve seen hundreds of cases, perhaps thousands, of Registered People where it is obvious that Registries haven’t and couldn’t possibly prevent any crime. That makes common sense as well.
Further, Registries absolutely kill empathy, compassion, and remorse. Registries definitely make people not care about other people and want to harm them. You must realize that Registries have been directly responsible for retaliation that murdered innocent children, right? So much for saving one child.
And again, anyone who thinks there should be Registries is the first person who needs to be listed.
Please keep us posted as to how this challenge turns out! If it fails at the State level, I hope they appeal to the SCOTUS.