Four sex offender bills advance
BOISE – Four bills aimed at toughening sex offender laws in Idaho were unanimously approved for introduction by a House committee Wednesday, including one to require electronic monitoring and lifetime parole for violent sexual predators.
Sponsored by Rep. Jim Clark, R-Hayden Lake, the bill also changes the requirement for regular address confirmation for designated VSPs to every 30 days instead of 90.
Of Idaho’s 2,802 registered sex offenders, 32 are classified as violent predators. But the state doesn’t monitor or supervise them unless they’re still on probation or parole. Currently, only three are.
After the high-profile case last summer of Joseph Duncan, charged with three Kootenai County homicides and expected to be charged with kidnapping and molesting two children, many states have made tougher sex offender laws a priority.
Committee Chairwoman Debbie Field, R-Boise, said she’s concerned that Idaho laws don’t go far enough to prevent sex offenders from committing more crimes.
Field proposed a bill that would eliminate the statute of limitations on certain felony sex crimes, including sexual abuse of a child or lewd conduct with a child.
“This is for them – this is for the victims,” Field said. “There isn’t anything that defines what (those crimes are) more than the murder of innocence.”
Rep. Donna Boe, D-Pocatello, co-sponsored the bill.
Another measure, sponsored by Clark, adds murder linked with sexual abuse to the list of crimes warranting a death penalty sentence.
Rep. Mike Mitchell, D-Lewiston, offered legislation to mandate that notices of recently relocated violent sexual predators be aired on TV and radio instead of only published in a newspaper. Current law requires a photograph of a violent sexual predator be published with his or her name and address once a week for three consecutive weeks upon registration in a county.
Three other sex offender bills were introduced in a Senate committee last week. Backed by Idaho Attorney General Lawrence Wasden, those bills include mandatory minimum sentences of 15 years for already-registered sex offenders who re-offend, and a mandatory minimum sentence of life behind bars for repeat offenses by those classified as violent sexual predators.
A hearing on all House sex offender bills is scheduled for Feb. 9.
Boe and Field also co-sponsored a bill that defines human trafficking, sets a maximum penalty of 25 years in prison for anyone found guilty of human trafficking who also is found guilty of other serious crimes, and calls for those convicted to pay restitution to the victim and pay for his or her rehabilitation.
The bill also asks the attorney general and the Department of Health and Welfare to report on how existing victim and witness laws affect human trafficking victims and how laws can be improved, as well as how existing social services help or do not help victims and how they can be improved.
The committee voted unanimously to introduce it.