I'm sure that many members will agree with this proposed legislation. But we have to be really careful when we start taking more and more rights away from any group of people. How far a stretch is it for gunowners homes to be searched without warrant whenever there is a shooting?
Jeff
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/ne...13259036009FC6138625711E00179C02?OpenDocument
Jeff
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/ne...13259036009FC6138625711E00179C02?OpenDocument
Missouri offender bill requires no warrants
By Matt Franck
POST-DISPATCH JEFFERSON CITY BUREAU
02/23/2006
JEFFERSON CITY
Thousands of Missouri sex offenders could have their home searched without a warrant each time a child in their neighborhood is reported missing, under a bill that had a hearing this week.
The measure, by Rep. Rob Schaaf, R-St. Joseph, would allow such searches even if law enforcement lacked probable cause to connect the sex offender to a missing child. The bill's only requirement is that the missing child was last seen within three miles of the offender's home.
Schaaf said the measure is justified after the abduction of 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford in Florida, whose body was found 150 yards from her home at property where a sex offender was staying.
Schaaf also cited common sense as grounds for his bill.
"The reason is simple: When a child is missing and there's a sex offender in the neighborhood, where should you look first?" he asked at a House committee hearing Tuesday evening.
But some of Schaaf's House colleagues are balking at the broad authority his bill would give law enforcement. And there's doubt the measure will be included in a more comprehensive bill being developed in the House.
"It raises all kinds of constitutional questions for me," said Rep. Rick Johnson, D-High Ridge.
Johnson asked Schaaf why police shouldn't continue being required to ask a judge for a warrant if they wish to search a sex offender's home.
Schaaf said that process often leads to delays. More fundamentally, he said, judges would require probable cause, which his bill does not demand.
"When you are a convicted felon, you give up a lot of rights," Schaaf said in an interview. "I'm willing to give up their rights in order to protect children who have gone missing."
No action has been taken so far on Schaaf's proposal, just one of several sex offender bills being pushed by at least a dozen lawmakers this session and most in response to Lunsford's death. The so-called Jessica's Laws, which are under debate in several states, share a common theme of mandatory 25-year sentences and lifetime monitoring for certain violent sex offenders.
Amid the bill stampede, some observers say Missouri lawmakers are competing with one another in seeking to throw the book at sex offenders.
"You kind of have one-upmanship in terms of who can be the toughest," said Rep. Scott Lipke, R-Jackson, who heads the House Crime Prevention and Public Safety Committee.
Lipke is working on a single House bill that would roll together measures from numerous sex offender bills. He said he has not yet decided whether Schaaf's provision on searching offenders' homes would be in the substitute bill. Lipke said he has concerns about the constitutionality of the measure.
In general, leaders in the Legislature have increasingly shown signs of restraint on sex offender legislation. The Senate, for example, is aligning behind a compromise bill that lacks many of the tougher measures filed by lawmakers this year.
Prosecutors across the state have urged lawmakers to step back. In particular they've taken issue with bills that would impose 25-year sentences for a broad range of sex crimes, including statutory rape. Critics say such sentences could be a tough sell to a jury, particularly in a case with little forensic evidence.
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