When will lawmakers recognize the waste that results from a registry, and that registries cannot prevent the ill they are seeking it to do. Knowing where someone sleeps for a few hours of a day, will never PREVENT future crimes. There are cars, trains and buses and the registrant can walk if they have a mind to do further harm.1-28-2010 New Hampshire:
CONCORD — Responding to a convicted child killer moving into their district, two area lawmakers testified in favor of a bill that would restrict where child murderers and sex offenders could live and mandate they register for life with the state Department of Public Safety.
Sen. Deborah Reynolds, D-Plymouth, and Rep. Francine Wendelboe, R- New Hampton co-sponsored House Bill 1647-FN and were both on hand to support is passage at a hearing before the Committee on Criminal Justice and Public Safety Tuesday afternoon.
"This is not about demagoguery," said Reynolds who read into the record the fears of one of her constituents that lives within walking distance of child killer Raymond Guay in New Hampton.
She recalled how the woman said her "family no longer has a sense of security" and how a "police photo of Guay is on her refrigerator" so she can make sure her 12-year-old knows what he looks like.
Wendelboe recounted the circuitous route Guay took before he landed in New Hampton, engendering public outcry at each stop until New Hampton's legal counsel told the Board of Selectmen not to release the information lest the town become the target of a lawsuit.
"They kept this secret from the community," Wendelboe said, getting to the heart of the issue that, in her and Reynolds' opinion, convicted child murderers, should they be paroled, must register with state public safety agencies.
Both legislators also spoke to the provision that generated the most controversy — restricting paroled child murderers and convicted sex offenders from living within 25 miles of one of the victims.
Although representatives from the U. S. Department of Parole and Probation, the agency responsible for placing and supervising Guay, said they didn't know it at the time, two of Guay's victim's aunts live about two miles from his New Hampton residence.
Speaking against HB1647-FN was Richard Jennings, the convicted sex offender who recently challenged and defeated Dover's residency restrictions about where convicted sex offenders can live.
Jennings, who was convicted of three counts of having sex with a 15-year-old girl when he was in his early 30s, said he is now married. He recalled for the committee the alleged harassment of him by the Dover police including how he was prevented from staying with his family on Christmas Eve, forcing him to sleep in his van.
"I made a bad decision," Jennings said. But he added a 25-mile residency restriction for murderers and sex offenders moves the solution in the wrong direction.
"Every sex offender is different. Every case is different," Jennings said.
He said residency restrictions in Dover forced the neighborhood to suffer not because of him, but because of the restrictions, recounting one day there were police cars and helicopters in his neighborhood.
Also objecting to the bill, especially the residency restrictions, was Clair Ebel of the N.H. Civil Liberties Union, the organization that represented Jennings.
"If 2,500 feet was struck down ... 25 miles is a laughing matter," Ebel said.
Ebel said it would be impossible to identify all the relatives of victims making the law as written unenforceable with no possibility of prosecution.
Following the hearing, Wendelboe said it was not the intent of the bill to include sex offenders as well as murderers in the 25-mile-radius clause and agreed that portion needed to be rewritten.
Many of those testifying said HB 1647-FN should be used as a vehicle for an interim study to discuss issues of recidivism and truth-in-sentencing laws.
No decision as to the future of HB 1647-FN has yet been made. ..Source.. Gail Ober
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