SEX OFFENDER LAWS UNDER FIRE

Moorehead, MN  June 18, 2007: Minnesota resident Patty Wetterling lost her young son Jacob 18 years ago in a most unimaginable way. Jacob was approached and abducted by a masked man in a pick up truck while riding his bike with his brother and another friend in his quiet suburban town. To this day, Jacob has not been found. His mother, Patty was one of the very first high profile child victim advocates to successful lobby for legislative change on Capitol Hill.

The Jacob Wetterling Act, named after her missing son, was signed into law in 1994. It required states to maintain a registry of convicted sex offenders for law enforcement purposes that was not accessible to the general public. The targets of “The Act” were sexually violent, dangerous, repeat offenders.

It was a good law. However, in the intervening years it has been amended numerous times, most notably by Megan’s Law, which made the information contained in the registry public information and mandated community notification. Most recently it has been amended yet again, by the Adam Walsh Act, courtesy of John Walsh of America’s Most Wanted and disgraced former Republican congressman Mark Foley of Florida.

All of the subsequent amendments to the original act have been named after a child that has been brutally murdered, whether by a registered sex offender of not. Each amendment has consistently expanded the definition of a sex offender and increased penalties to the point of utter ridiculousness, and Patty Wetterling has had enough. Lawmakers and big business have effectively made a mockery of the Jacob Wetterling tragedy and Patty is speaking out for change.

Ricky was kicked out of school, and must stay away from schools and parks. "I get frustrated at times because I can't do what a kid wants to do. I'm basically stuck," says Ricky. "My friends go out and do stuff. I can't go with them. I can't play basketball or football with them. I just go to work, come home and try to just do stuff around the house."

Ricky’s mother says she believes her son should have been punished for having sex with a 13-year-old girl. But she's angry he's painted with the same brush as a violent predatory rapist. “He won't date. He won't talk to girls. A girl says 'Hi' to him in the store -- and I have seen him twice bail out of the store and lock himself inside our pickup. He just says, 'I'm scared,'" says his mother. "The damage that's being done by making him register as a sex offender is long term. This will always haunt this kid."

Stories like Ricky’s have been and are repeated again and again throughout the country. Young men and women, just like Ricky are littering the sex offender registry and websites. Their lives forever and irrevocably destroyed. It is a constant daily struggle for them to successfully navigate the minefield of laws, restrictions, and requirements that all stand ready to send them to prison for years if not decades.Patty Wetterling says it's an example of sex offender laws that go too far. "Everybody wants to out-tough the next legislator.”I'm tough on crime,” they’ll say,  'No, I'm even more tough.' It's all about ego and boastfulness," says Wetterling. Wetterling says she wants public policy to be effective. She says broad sweeping laws that treat all offenders the same waste resources and lives.

She is right and the NACDA strongly agrees. In a scathing letter to U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, they decried the Adam Walsh Act as blatantly unconstitutional and contradictory to public safety. The group consists of over 12,800 attorneys, 92 state, local and affiliate organizations and over 35,000 additional members which include private criminal defense lawyers, public defenders, active U.S. military defense counselors, law professors, and judges all who are committed to preserving fairness within the American criminal justice system. The letter, in it’s an entirety can be viewed here:  http://www.nacdl.org/public.nsf/2cdd02b415ea3a64852566d6000daa79/Rules&Reg_attachments/$FILE/SORNA.pdf

The power behind this alignment of a notable and high profile child victim advocate, Patty Wetterling with the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers speaks volumes as to what the general public is not being told about the sex offender registry. There are many loose threads in the system that are finally beginning to unravel. How many politicians that have built careers off exploiting victims and abusing their legislative powers is anyone’s guess. How many companies, such as Lexis Nexis and Family Watchdog that have ridden the finacially lucrative wave of injustice?

The day of reckoning is quickly coming and finally it is they who will be publicly exposed for crimes much worse than that of young “Ricky’s and thousands of others who share his plight. They will be called into account for their actions. No longer will they be able to use our children and young adults as stepping stones in their bastardly attempts at garnering votes and creating an unfounded climate of fear and hatred throughout America. The scarlett letter is real and is about to be placed squarely on the foreheads of those responsible for this American travesty that is the sex offender registry.

The full transcript of Patty Wetterling’s interview can be found here: http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2007/06/11/sexoffender1/

A very special thanks to Patty Wetterling and the NACDL for their courage to stand up and speak out for what is right as well as some long overdue changes.

Operationawareness.com  6/27/2007

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