Sex Offender Bills Deferred 021110 (audio)

Air Date:02/11/2010

By Eryn Clement
 
The Senate Judiciary Committee deferred three sex offender bills to the 41 day, in essence killing the bills. The legislation comes from a packet of bills created from a 2009 summer study. Senate bill five revises registration provisions for juvenile sex offenders while Senate bill six modifies the criteria for the removal from the sex offender registry.  A third bill that was killed, limits the misdemeanor eligibility for registration on the offender registry. Senator Craig Tieszen believes the Senate committee has made great headway with the sex offender measures.
 
“I think in the big picture we have made progress on this. We’ve addressed the issue and shined a bright light on the registry and all of that’s good. Perhaps down the road we can add further tweaking but I think we have a good basis for that set up,” says Tieszen.
 
Senate bill 12 is the main bill in the sex offender legislation packet which provides for a tiered sex offender registry. The three bills were killed after it was established that amendments added in Senate bill 12, offer what those bills individually aim to provide. Senate bill 12 passed in the Senate committee with a seven to zero vote and now heads to the full Senate.

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