Veto of Sex Offender Registration Reform

And this was his own party that controls the legislature!

From the Bangor Daily News:

AUGUSTA, Maine — Gov. John Baldacci on Wednesday pocket-vetoed a bill aimed at improving the state’s sex offender registry, effectively negating a year of work by members of the Legislature’s Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee.

LD 446, an Act to Improve the Use of Information Regarding Sex Offenders to Better Ensure Public Safety and Awareness, is the latest in a series of bills the governor has refused to sign.

Baldacci credited committee members for working diligently on the issue but said in a statement Wednesday afternoon: "I cannot support this legislation. It would remove from the sex offender registry perhaps as many as 580 people who have been convicted of a sex crime."

Sen. Bill Diamond, D-Windham, co-chairman of the criminal justice panel, said he understands the governor’s concerns but argued that it’s a step backward.

"I know the governor struggled with this, but we were convinced we were protecting the registry," Diamond said. "We knew there was no perfect solution, but our biggest concern was ending up with nothing."

Rep. Joseph Tibbetts, R-Columbia, also a member of the committee, was surprised and frustrated with Baldacci’s decision.

"This bill was the best we could do with the time and material that was presented to us without putting the public at risk," he said. "Now we have to start over."

Baldacci said his biggest concern is that the bill didn’t do enough to differentiate between sexually violent predators and those who are not a high risk to reoffend.

"I have no doubt that there are people on the registry who shouldn’t be required to register because they no longer pose a risk to public safety," Baldacci said in the statement. "But until we have a better system to judge who those people are, we should continue with our current law."

. . .

The current Legislature is not scheduled to reconvene this year.

Meanwhile, last fall the Maine Supreme Judicial Court said the state’s sex offender law could be unconstitutional because it increases criminal punishments retroactively for people who already have completed sentences.

Diamond said he is worried that could haunt Maine in light of the governor’s move.

"We have not made any changes [since last fall], which means we’re still very vulnerable to having our registry being unconstitutional," he said.

The Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee is expected to reconvene this summer to research and discuss issues relating to sex offender registration. Diamond said one of the big items will be discussing the creation of a tier system for offenders based on level of risk. Some offenders would be listed on a public registry, others by request and the rest on a "silent" registry available only to law enforcement.

"It’s going to be a slower process, but we have to continue the fight," he said.

Baldacci’s statement indicated he was confident the summer session would lead to more concrete and appropriate changes to the registry.

Tibbetts, who will not seek another term in the Legislature, said LD 446 would have been at a good starting point but he acknowledged that much more needs to be done.

"I can live with the governor not signing this, but there are people out there who can’t, namely the registrants that shouldn’t be on there," he said.

Comments

[Calvin Shelton]

Art Morrissette, I can symphyse with you. Our country was founded on the premise that it was far better for ten guilty persons to go free rather than for one innocent to be punished. People are losing the sense of what our Constitution stands for. It was written by criminals and terrorists who the British would have, and did is several cases, imprison and execute. Those rights and guarantees were written from the experiences of our founding fathers and their struggle to be free of tyranny. One of the most powerful tools our founding fathers wrote into the Constitution was the right, I repeat right to "Habeas Corpus" so NO ONE could be just locked away and denied their day in court. Today that major right has been gutted in the name of Security. More like in the name of fear and political expedience. If anyone has any doubts look at Texas with all the recent exhonorations of people wrongfully convicted and sent to prison, most recent was one cleared after 27 years for a crime he did not commit and the evidence the District Attorney hide from the Defense would have proved it. So the fact that a lot of innocent people must suffer because of the actions of a very few is not new. The Governor is playing Politics not exercising his Constitutional oath and duty to uphold the law and protect the innocent.

If you would like to know more about the fight to regain the Civil Rights of Former Offenders checkout this forum, I am there a lot.

http://cybermessageboard.fatcow.com/thepar/index.php

and

http://theparson.net/so/

[Art Morrissette]

I think the Governor's veto is completely unjustified. If the present status of the law is unfair for even one of Maine's citizens, it will continue to be a travesty for another whole year. My wife and I know and love one of those people who is wrongfully listed, yet he cannot come forward to fight for himself: if he did he would lose the little he has now. The law is intended to protect the public and this is an appropriate cause when it concerns those who are dangerous to the public. This individual, who is neither a molester, repeat offender, nor a preditor, does not fit that profile at all. How will the law protect HIM from the public? If the new bill is more just than the current, even if imperfect, does it not merit passage until a better bill is passed? Or is the governor more concerned about the guilty who go free than the innocent who will be unjustly prosecuted?

[Calvin Shelton]

DO NOT, I REPEAT, DO NOT ATTEMPT TO USE THAT WEB ADDRESS POSTED IN THE PREVIOUS COMMENT. A TRANSLATION OF THE TEXT LEADS ME TO BELIEVE IT IS "CHILD PORN". IT IS A SETUP. I HAVE EMAILED THE OWNER OF THIS PAGE AND MADE THEM AWARE SO HOPEFULLY IT WILL BE TAKEN OFF A.S.A.P..

[Polander]

Hi, I've found a video on a bearshare You have to put in search form the exact phrase "seks nastolatki w szkole gimnazjum dziwki suki dziewice.mpeg" it has 59 MB , CALL THE POLICE ! These people should be in a prison ! Please do something, here in poland where I live they will do nothing :(

[Calvin Shelton]

As a Registered Former Offender who would have benefited greatly by this bill, I am glad he vetoed it. This bill was the legislatures attempt to passive the Maine State Supreme Court that made it clear, in a unanimous opinion I remind everyone, that the current situation is unacceptable and needs to be changed. Had this bill been successful it would have made mot the case the Court sustained and ordered retried. So now it is our sincere hope this case moves forward and gets back before the Court who's made their views and opinions clear on it already, the State can only hope to savage something if the Court carries threw with their opinions. All Former Offenders should send the Govenor a Thank You letter.