Tuesday, December 26, 2006
If more defendants go to trial, convictions could drop, critics of the measure say.
COLUMBUS (AP) -- State legislators worked to toughen laws involving sex offenders during the two-year session that ended last week, passing several measures that include increasing minimum prison sentences for some crimes that target children.
Critics argue that lawmakers were pandering to the public outcry over the issue and that harsher possible penalties could lead to fewer convictions.
A bill sent last week to Gov. Bob Taft for his signature will boost the punishment for rape or attempted rape of victims younger than 13. The minimum sentence for rape would increase from 10 years to 25 years under the measure.
The bill was Ohio's version of a Florida's "Jessica's Law," named for a 9-year-old girl who was kidnapped and murdered in 2005. The girl's father, Mark Lunsford, testified before an Ohio Senate committee in March.
"We're keeping those individuals off the street so they can't get back out and repeat those crimes," said Sen. Steve Austria, the Beavercreek Republican who sponsored the bill.
That measure and several other proposed sex offender laws gained urgency this year because of publicity surrounding a judge's decision to sentence a man to probation for assaulting two boys.
"That kind of brought this to a head," said Republican Rep. Jim Hughes of Columbus. "Sometimes, legislation is enacted and drafted because of current events. I think we need to make sure we send a message to people in Ohio that we are protecting our children."
Here's a concern
Some experts have warned that harsher penalties could lead to fewer convictions if more defendants opt to go to trial instead of taking plea agreements.
"The vast, vast majority of child sex-assault cases are not supported by strong evidence," Judge Daniel Hogan, the Franklin County Common Pleas Court administrative judge, told lawmakers in March.
The final version of the bill modeled on the Florida law contained a number of lesser punishments than the original. But because the bill imposes indefinite sentences for raping a child, Columbus defense lawyer Max Kravitz said it begins to take apart Ohio's "truth-in-sentencing" law, which provides definite sentences in most cases.
"It's pandering to the public when there is absolutely no need for this legislation at the present time," said Kravitz, a member of the Ohio Criminal Sentencing Commission. He said the average rapist in Ohio serves more than 17 years in prison.
John Murphy, executive director of the Ohio Prosecuting Attorneys Association, said he approves of the measure and likes that it requires a judge's approval to release those offenders, in addition to the state parole board.
"We're hearing news reports in this state and others that these people are committing these vicious crimes, and then we come to find out they were just recently released for having previously done the same thing," he said. "It's ridiculous."
Lawmakers are expected to continue addressing sex offender laws, with a number of bills that didn't pass likely to be introduced again. Austria said legislators also plan to study how to comply with a new federal law creating stricter requirements for registering sex offenders.