State's murder registry tops 500

4-24-2012 Illinois:

SPRINGFIELD - Hundreds of murderers living in Illinois have entered their names and addresses on a new registry that went on line in January.

According to the Illinois State Police, a total of 528 murderers who have served their sentences and are back on the streets are registered on the Murderer and Violent Offender Against Youth Registry.

The three-month-old registry is the product of a law approved by the General Assembly last year that is patterned after the state's sex offender registry, which requires sex offenders to register with state authorities.

The legislation was named "Andrea's Law" after Andrea Will, who was an 18-year-old student at Eastern Illinois University when she was murdered in 1998 by a former boyfriend.

Her mother, Patricia Rosenberg, said the website would give people the ability to know whether a murderer is living nearby.

Under the law, once a convicted murderer has finished their prison sentence, they have to register where they're living in Illinois for another ten years.

The website allows users to search for murderers by county or by a map. In most cases, the website features a picture of the murderer, his or her address, a physical description and a birth date. It also includes the nature of the crime, including how old the victim was.

The site contains a handful of murderers who committed their crimes outside of Illinois.

The registry of murderers was added to an existing state police website that highlighted information about individuals who committed murder against a person age 17 or under. ..Source.. by Kurt Erickson