COLUMBUS Sex-offender notification law widened

The new law also creates a statewide Internet database of sex offenders.
By JEFF ORTEGA
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
COLUMBUS -- Parents of a Wayne County girl slain last year by a man who had earlier been convicted of rape say they hope a strengthened sexual-offender notification law will help prevent tragedies.
"Potential sexual offenders are hereby put on notice that if they cross the line to commit a sexual offense, everyone around them will know about it," Sharon Jackson said Thursday before Gov. Bob Taft signed into law a bill that expands the community notification requirements and the number of criminal offenses designated "sexually-oriented offenses."
Jackson's daughter, Kristen Jackson, 14, disappeared last September from the Wayne County Fair. Kristen's remains were discovered days and weeks later. Investigators said Kristen had been raped, strangled and her body dismembered.
Joel Yockey, 47, who lived near the Jacksons in the Wooster area, has been convicted of aggravated murder and other charges in Kristen's death and is currently serving a life sentence with no parole at the Warren Correctional Institution in southwest Ohio.
The new notification law, which took effect immediately and was largely the product of a task force formed by Taft in the wake of Kristen's death, also subjects repeat sex offenders to lifetime registration and creates stiffer criminal penalties for sex offenders who fail to register.
The new law also creates a statewide Internet database of sex offenders.
Criminal background
Yockey had spent 15 years in state prison in the rape and kidnapping of another 17-year-old Wayne County girl. But when Yockey was released in March 2002, his crimes didn't meet the criteria that would have required notifying neighbors of his presence.
Backers of the new sexual-offender notification law say they hope the changes will prevent that from happening again.
"A lifetime of public humiliation will be hopefully a deterrent enough to make someone think twice before they act," Sharon Jackson said, her eyes at times swelling with tears.
"People have the right to know about any past [sexual] offenders that are living among them regardless of the severity of their actions," Mrs. Jackson said.
"Hopefully, this will help save someone in the future," Kristen's father, Mark Jackson, said.
Judith French, Taft's chief legal counsel, said changes made by the state make it "more likely" that Yockey's previous rape and kidnapping convictions would trigger automatic community notification.
The Ohio Senate passed the measure in March. The Ohio House passed the proposal in June.