Bill makes sex offender registration mandatory

The U.S. Senate has passed a bill designed to strengthen national sex offender registry requirements, partly in response to the Joseph Duncan case.

“More stringent national registration requirements for sex offenders, especially violent sex offenders, will reduce the likelihood that the terrible events of last summer in North Idaho could ever be repeated,” said Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, a co-sponsor of the bill. “Sharing this information across state lines provides a strong network that can be cross-referenced by law enforcement and parents as communities nationwide work together to ensure the safety of all children.”

The bill, S. 1086, combines federal sex offender registry and notification laws and adds to them. Among its key changes is making sex offender registration mandatory for all states – rather than optional – unless specific provisions in the law violate a state’s constitution.

Both Idaho and Washington already have sex offender registration laws that in some regards are more stringent than the requirements of the new bill.

But Laura Thurston Goodroe, a spokeswoman for Crapo’s office, said, “The larger part of this is it allows states to share information and requires the registry.” That should help prevent an offender from one state from moving unnoticed into another, she said.

Duncan, who faces homicide charges in Kootenai County for allegedly killing three members of a Wolf Lodge Bay-area family one year ago next Monday, is a sex offender convicted in Washington who had moved to North Dakota. At the time of his arrest, he was a fugitive charged with molesting a 6-year-old boy in Minnesota.

The Senate bill is next expected to be considered in the U.S. House.