Update: Prosecutor: RI sex-offender registry bill on hold

6-10-2010 Rhode Island:

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- A bill that would have required Rhode Island to comply with a federal law requiring changes in the way states classify and register sex offenders appears to be on hold.

The bill, (S-2897) introduced by Sen. James E. Doyle, III, D-Pawtucket, would have required the state to come into compliance with the federal 2006 Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act, which sets strict rules for monitoring sex offenders as they move from neighborhood to neighborhood and state to state.

The state has been granted an extension to come into compliance with the federal law until July 2011, said Stacey Pires Veroni, chief of the criminal division for the Rhode Island Attorney General's Office.

"Obviously we want it (passed) but they're holding it for further study,'' Pires Veroni said. Thursday. "I think they probably won't take action on it."

The implementation of the federal law -- also known as the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act -- has proven legally problematic and potentially costly for states.

The bill has raised conerns among lawyers who represent juvenile offenders because it would require some juveniles sex offenders as young as 14 to be included in a national data based of registered sex offenders for the rest of their lives.

In a June 9 letter to Senate President M. Teresa Paiva Weed, Rhode Island Public Defender John J. Hardiman wrote that the legislation would "create enormous catastrophic consequences for Rhode Island's juvenile sexual offenders and their families, many of which are not readdily apparent from the text of the proposed law."

A separate House bill (H-4046) to require sex-offenders to comply with the existing state registry law while their cases are being appealed is scheduled for a vote in the House Thursday evening. ..Source.. Lynn Arditi