MO- Necessary sex offender list fails test of balanced justice

7-1-2009 Missouri:

The symbol most often seen on law offices and court houses is an image of a set of balanced scales. What we want from our penal system is justice, balanced justice, in which we can reliably believe that the punishment fits the crime. Everyone knows that there is a difference between murder and littering. In fact, we discern several different degrees of murder: involuntary manslaughter, premeditated murder and crimes of passion. We understand that there is a huge moral difference between accidentally killing someone in a vehicular homicide and going into a former place of employment with automatic weapons and killing everyone you can. We expect our government, our judges and our penal system to deliver punishment which fits the crime. Not too little and not too much.

As we are now preparing to broadly expand the list of persons on Missouri's sex offender list, I would like to call for a moment of sane reflection on balanced justice. Like most people, I wouldn't waste much breath in defending anyone who had molested children or who had committed forced sodomy or rape on anyone. In fact, when I have moved into a neighborhood, because I have a daughter, I have always consulted the sex offenders' registry to see if I have any neighbors about whom I should be concerned.

The only legitimate reason to have such a list is to warn residents about the presence of criminals who might pose a threat to their families. However, what we find on the list is not just child molesters and rapists. Here are some examples of persons whom you might find listed in your area: One is a young mother who has recently escaped from a violent marriage to a man who molested her children. She did not report her ex-husband's abuse because he had threatened to kill her. Maybe she should have reported him anyway but she was young and terrified. Even though she was also a victim of her husband's violence, she was charged as an accomplice to the child molestation and now will be forced to register as a sex offender for the rest of her life.

Another might be a middle aged man who, 20 years ago, was having a cook out in a public park with some college buddies. He drank too much beer and decided to relieve himself behind a tree in the park. A family with children saw him urinating in public and called the police. He was convicted of indecent exposure and will now be on the sex offender list for the rest of his life.

The list, which was created to help parents feel safer, has become yet another club with which the justice system can unevenly and irrationally beat down people who otherwise might have gotten their lives straightened out and become healthy and productive members of society.

Keep the list but please make sure that only real sex offenders are put on the list. ..Opinion.. of Dr. Roger Ray (RevDrRay@aol.com) is a local pastor contributing his personal opinion, not that of his church. "From the Left" appears every Wednesday. Coming Tuesday: "From the Right."