So why do we need yet another registry? I personally do not agree in any registry, but, if we must have one, we should have one for all sinners! And why only those who have murdered children? What about those who killed adults? Just another ex post facto law to waste money on naming and shaming while actually doing nothing to prevent crime or protect anybody!
04/23/2012
By Kurt Erickson
SPRINGFIELD - Hundreds of murderers living in Illinois have entered their names and addresses on a new registry that went on line in January.
According to the Illinois State Police, a total of 528 murderers who have served their sentences and are back on the streets are registered on the Murderer and Violent Offender Against Youth Registry.
The three-month-old registry is the product of a law approved by the General Assembly last year that is patterned after the state's sex offender registry, which requires sex offenders to register with state authorities.
The legislation was named "Andrea's Law" after Andrea Will, who was an 18-year-old student at Eastern Illinois University when she was murdered in 1998 by a former boyfriend.
Her mother, Patricia Rosenberg, said the website would give people the ability to know whether a murderer is living nearby.
Under the law, once a convicted murderer has finished their prison sentence, they have to register where they're living in Illinois for another ten years.
- Why not for life? And what about residency restrictions? Will they also be banned from living around where children congregate, and be banned from Internet sites that have children?
The website allows users to search for murderers by county or by a map. In most cases, the website features a picture of the murderer, his or her address, a physical description and a birth date. It also includes the nature of the crime, including how old the victim was.
The site contains a handful of murderers who committed their crimes outside of Illinois.
The registry of murderers was added to an existing state police website that highlighted information about individuals who committed murder against a person age 17 or under.
I couldn't help but notice that the victim must be 17 or younger before the murderer is required to register, but the murder victim this law was named after was 18 at the time of her murder. Therefore, her murderer apparently is not required to register.
ReplyDelete