First, the Adam Walsh Act has been funded ten times over through other bills, funding it yet again is not going to solve anything, except make someone look good!3-4-2010 National:
Secondly, there is nothing whatsoever, within the Adam Walsh Act (or prior similar useless laws) that could have prevented this terrible crime, had it been in place before the crime. AWA is a rewrite of past failures of lawmakers to accomplish something which can never be accomplished with such laws.
Lawmakers need to get this: TRACKING is not PREVENTION! Further, lawmakers need to focus on public safety, not making themselves look good to their constitutents.
John Walsh Said President Obama Vowed to Fund Federal Sex Offender Law
He was in court for just minutes, but the mere sight of the convicted sex offender charged with raping and murdering 17-year-old Chelsea King set off a fresh round of outrage that reached as far as the White House.
John Albert Gardner III, 30, pleaded not guilty Wednesday, but the community obviously had a very different opinion.
In the hours before his court appearance in San Diego Wednesday, someone spray painted his mother's garage with the words, "Chelsea's blood is on you -- move out." And neighbors screamed at two men who tried to paint over it.
"You're protecting somebody who has killed an innocent girl," one yelled. "Get out of here."
John Walsh, host of "America's Most Wanted," said he met with President Obama Wednesday to discuss child protection laws and funding for the Adam Walsh Act, signed three years ago by President Bush.
The law promised to create a national registry of sex offenders and keep closer track of the most violent of them, but it did not come with the funds needed to carry it out.
"President Obama said yesterday, 'As the father of two girls, John, I will get the Adam Walsh law funded,'" Walsh told "Good Morning America" today.
Walsh, whose 6-year-old son for whom the law is named and who was kidnapped and murdered in 1981, knows firsthand the grief King's parents are experiencing.
"They're in the worst place a parent could be," he said. "They look in that courtroom and see a guy who should have never been out on the streets."
King, a well-liked honors student, vanished after heading out for a jog in a semi-rural San Diego County park. Her body was found less than a week later, buried in a shallow grave near the shore of Lake Hodges, about a half-mile from her car.
But the outrage grew with the arrest of Gardner, a known violent sex offender who has since been charged with the December assault and attempted rape of 22-year-old Candice Moncayo in the same park where King's body was found.
"I think everyone asks the same question," Walsh said. "Why was this animal out on the streets?"
Do we still have a judicial system? At this point is this man guilty or innocent until proven guilty? John Walsh seems to have made up his mind. Yes, this is a terrible crime, but -foregone conclusions- AND -knee-jerk- reactions have no place in our democracy!
Residents Angry John Albert Gardner Was Allowed Out
"The law should be once you offend, you're done, you're toast, you're in the slammer or you are executed," one angry woman said as she stood among protestors outside the courthouse.
Former San Diego County District Attorney Paul Pfingst was slightly more objective.
"I am of the view that people who do harm to teenage girls should go to Gitmo and stay there for the rest of their lives and be waterboarded," he said.
Authorities said Gardner may also be linked to the February 2009 disappearance of 14-year-old Amber DuBois, who vanished on her way to school, not far from where Gardner was living at the time.
"The girls are the exact similar build," Maurice DuBois said of his daughter and King. "Both white girls, both five-five, both 130 pounds."
Detectives across California are now looking into other unsolved cases involving young girls and considering whether there are any more possible links to Gardner.
Gardner pleaded guilty in 2000 to charges of committing lewd and lascivious acts on 13-year-old girl in his parents' home. He served five years of a six-year sentence and was on parole until 2008.
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If the district attorney does not seek the death penalty, the charges carry a penalty of 25 years to life.
Psychiatrist Said Gardner Posed 'Continued Danger to Underage Girls'
Gardner's previous record as a convicted sex offender, prosecutors said, would be presented at trial.
Dr. Matthew Carroll, a court psychiatrist, who evaluated Gardner before his release from prison on the 2000 conviction, had pushed for the maximum sentence, as many as 30 years, and said Gardner "would be a continued danger to underage girls in the community."
Dr. Alex Kalish, a colleague, said Carroll was angry that his recommendations were ignored a decade ago.
"Dr. Carroll told the court that [Gardner] showed no insight and expressed no responsibility and that he is a danger. You can't make a stronger statement than that," said Kalish. "The guy is violent and a predator who shows no remorse.
"There was no effort to consider his report. Apparently the DA did what was expedient to get a conviction. It is frustrating that no one considered the psychiatric input. Why ask for it, if you don't consider it," Kalish said. ..Source.. MIKE VON FREMD, RUSSELL GOLDMAN and SARAH NETTER
5 comments:
Do I see a "Jessicas Law part 2" coming to California??
Walsh has made a statement "Why was this animal out on the streets?"
That's a good question when "Dr. Matthew Carroll, a court psychiatrist, who evaluated Gardner before his release from prison on the 2000 conviction, had pushed for the maximum sentence, as many as 30 years, and said Gardner would be a continued danger to underage girls in the community."
So they knew about this man BEFORE they let him out AND he was deemed a danger to the community.
NOT EVERY SEX OFFENDER IS LIKE THIS MAN.
The blame, ONCE AGAIN, goes to the state of California and the Parole Board because the KNEW Gardner was a danger before they released him.
Not every sex offender is a danger. Those who are, need to be kept off the streets. Those who are not, need to be assimilated back into society.
The funding is the very least of the problems with the ADAM WALSH ACT, otherwise it would have been funded back in 06-07 and every state could have "easily" complied if they wanted too. Just to note the defendant in this case already had his registration information public on the National Sex Offender Registry and California's own SO registry.
Would people listen to yourselves? They haven't proved anything against this man. And while yes, he does "look good" for this crime, he is still INNOCENT until PROVEN GUILTY in a court of law. Hell, it could be that the cops just grabed the sex-offender on their list that lived closest to the crime sceen.
Don't think it could happen, believe me, it does. I know from personal experience. SOB's tried to roll in on me for a crime that occured "while I was still incarcerated". They don't bother to check the facts, they just go with the easiest bust.
And thanks to the Registry, I haven't been able to find a steady job since my release. It doesn't matter that my crime was an non-violent, or that I was caught on a sting by the police over the internet. The simple fact that my name appears on that list is reason enough for them to deny me a job, regardless of my qualifications or their needs.
The law needs to go, and the f@#$%#@ cops need to start doing their jobs. At the very MOST, the registry should be available to Police and Court Personnel only.
I've changed my life, but because of the Registry, I'm not allowed to continue with it. I'm shunned and hated everywhere I go, because of that list. I do what I'm suppose to, and register. Within a couple of days, someone nearby has seen my name on the list and told everyone that I'm on it. Rarely do they check to see what for. Then, I either lose my job, or recieve threats to my life. Twice I've had my vehicle vandalized.
All I want is a chance to live a normal life. I don't care if the police keep a closer watch on me until they are comfortable with me, but I don't need every person in the world to know my past. I'm not a danger. All I want is a chance.
But, I don't see that ever happening. Not with people like John Walsh fanning the fears every chance he gets. John, I understand your pain, but I wasn't the one who caused it. Why am I the one that's being punished. If you are as good a man as you claim, how can you justify that?
I'll give one to think about Scott.
Adam Walsh's head was the only thing found after his murder. There was no evidence that he had been molested at all.
John Walsh went with a confession from a Serial Killer named Otis Toole. Toole was known for confessing and then recanting his story. He recanted that he killed Adam Walsh as well. Supposedly, Otis Toole gave a death bed confession to a relative that he did kill Adam Walsh, but the murder was never proven at all.
With "extremely" little evidence except that confession, John Walsh has harbored a prejudice against Sex Offenders ever since his son's demise.
Sorry your life has been turned upside down, but glad to have you on board. Now go out and fight like the rest of us to get the unconstitutional AWA changed.
BTW you can find answers on this site as to how the Adam Walsh Act actually came into being. It's a damn interesting story too!!!!
Copy and past this in your browser:
http://sexoffender-reports.blogspot.com/search/label/AWA%20Morphism
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