Senate passes tougher sentencing laws for sex offenders
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The state Senate approved a measure that would keep violent sexual offenders behind bars longer and require closer supervision for those paroled. The measure was one of a package of bills passed Tuesday in response to the rape and murder of San Diego County teenagers Chelsea King and Amber Dubois.
Lawmakers dubbed one bill ‘Chelsea’s Law’ in memory of King, who was killed by a previously convicted sex offender after she disappeared while jogging near her home. King’s parents actively supported the legislation. ‘This tragedy exposed a number of serious flaws in how California deals with violent sex offenders,’ said Senate Republican leader Dennis Hollingsworth of Murrieta. ‘Chelsea’s law is an attempt to isolate this uniquely dangerous type of predator and take significant steps to reform our system and protect our children.’
The measure would provide for life sentences without the possibility of parole for the most dangerous sexual offenders, increase the sentence for forcible sex crimes, increase parole terms for those who target children under 14, require electronic monitoring of more parolees and restrict sex offenders’ ability to enter parks.
The measure received unanimous Senate support, with Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento) calling it ‘Strong, tough.’
AB 1844, written by Assemblyman Nathan Fletcher (R-San Diego), was previously approved by the Assembly. It goes back to that house for concurrence in amendments before heading to the governor’s desk.
Brent King, Chelsea’s father, said from the family’s new home in Illinois that he hopes to get the California measure adopted in other states, calling the vote a ‘bittersweet moment.’ Kelly King, Chelsea’s mother, said she watched the Senate vote on television with tears in her eyes. ‘I can’t think, aside from having my daughter back here, of anything more meaningful to Brent and I,’ she said.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Tuesday that he plans to sign the bill, adding that he supports ‘creating harsher penalties on those that prey on children.’
The Senate also approved two bills supported by Moe Dubois, the father of 14-year-old Amber Dubois, the second teenager killed by convicted sex offender John Albert Gardner III. AB 33 aims at getting local law enforcement agencies to obtain and better use a list of registered sex offenders when a child is reported abducted by a stranger, and seeks to improve training in missing person cases.
The bill, written by Assemblyman Pedro Nava (D-Santa Barbara), was previously approved by the Assembly but goes back there for a final vote on amendments.
Nava also wrote AB 34, which, as approved by the Senate on Tuesday, also seeks to improve communications on missing persons cases. The bill requires the state’s Violent Crime Information Center to release information on missing or unidentified persons to the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System, and requires local law enforcement to report to the state system within two hours when people under 21 go missing.
-- Patrick McGreevy in Sacramento
