(MONTPELIER) – Lt. Governor Brian Dubie today urged Governor Douglas to convene a special session of the Vermont legislature to begin to reform state laws concerning sexual predators. He also launched a statewide petition drive, inviting Vermonters who agree that the state can do more to protect children and women against sexual predators to sign and circulate the petition, which is available on his website at
www.ltgov.vermont.gov Among the reforms he called for are:
A comprehensive review of our criminal justice system. I call for a thorough investigation of Vermont's laws and policies that should protect Vermont’s children from sex offenders.
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Agree.
Adoption of a Jessica’s Law, which would set a 25-year mandatory minimum prison sentence for a first-time convicted child sexual abuser. Our law could be modeled on New Hampshire’s law that includes a “presumptive” clause, for cases where the evidence is weak or the victim chooses not to testify. It allows a judge to impose a lesser term, accompanied by explanation of the decision. We would essentially be strengthening Vermont’s current law, which has a “presumptive” 10-year minimum sentence and a 5-year minimum mandatory sentence.
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Disagree, this will have the opposite of the intended effect and will result in fewer convictions.
I continue to believe that if AR had come forward with allegations of sexual abuse that a jury would not have believed her unless there was DNA evidence..which there usually isn't because the child doesn't usually tell right after an attack...and remember, his previous arrest for a sex crime would NOT be admissable. It would be the word of a sexually active 14 year old against her step father.
A mandatory life sentence for a second-time violent sexual offense against a child.
Agree.
Passage of a civil confinement law that would extend prison stays for certain high-risk offenders who have served their terms, but who by clear criteria are known to be highly likely to re-offend.
Agree!
Utilizing chemical castration and physical castration treatments for habitual sex offenders
Disagree on physical castration.
Broadening the criteria for listing child predators on Vermont’s Online Sex Offender Registry, and making it more user-friendly, as it is in other states, and for better monitoring of sex offenders using GPS technology.
It depends on what is meant by broadening the category of a child predator...a 17 year old who has consensual sex with a 13 year old is not a child predator in my opinion. Agree about making it user friendly.
Tough penalties for those who harbor a sex offender who violates registration requirements.
Okay, but how are you going to prove the person knows they are harboring a sex offender? This could end up wasting resources prosecuting landlords or relatives on technical violations if you could even prove they had the requisite knowledge that the offender was in violation. GPS tracking would make this a non starter anyway..
Expansion and funding for Special Investigative Units, to improve conviction rates and sentencing.
[COLOR="blue"Agree!!![/COLOR]
Adoption of laws that would allow evidence of prior sexual misconduct to be admissible in sex crimes cases, as it is in 12 other states and in federal court.
[COLOR="blue"]Agree, this is huge. This may be the most important thing on the list. I don't believe anyone gets wrongly accused of a sex crime more than once, so previous evidence of sexual misconduct should be considered presumptively relevant. The fact that in a majority of states a jury is not told of previous allegations, even previous convictions on sex crimes is ridiculous. [/COLOR]
Collection by law enforcement authorities of DNA samples from anyone arrested in our state that could assist in cracking unsolved sex crimes.