Legislators intensely debated for an hour before narrowly passing a bill that would allow certain sex offenders to halve their time on the state registry, but legislators passed with little discussion a bill that would allow kidnappers to be removed from the same public registry.
HB13, sponsored by Rep. Jack Draxler, R-North Logan, would allow offenders convicted of unlawful sexual conduct with a 16 or 17 year old or unlawful sexual activity with a 14- or 15-year-old minor to petition a judge for removal from the registry. They must have completed all required counseling and broken no other laws since their sexual offense. The bill originally allowed for voyeurism, but Draxler removed it because that could involve an offense against someone younger than 14.
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"We do want to be sensitive to victims, but we need to make sure the registry is meaningful," Draxler told The Tribune. "Its effectiveness is diluted when you have people on there that shouldn’t be on there."
He points to a case where a 15-year-old and 19-year-old had a consensual sexual relationship. The 19-year-old man was convicted of a sex crime and placed on the registry for 10 years despite the fact he eventually married the girl and they now have four children together.
However, some of his colleagues on the House Judiciary Committee worried that this bill could reopen old wounds for victims of sex offenders because they will be notified of a sex offender’s petition and given the chance to contest it. Others also worried everyone convicted of these two crimes would attempt to petition a judge. Mel Wilson, representing the Utah Council for Victims of Crime, also spoke against the bill, expressing similar concerns.
Former lawmaker Brian Allen, who sponsored the bill that created the Sex Offender Registry, said he formed the registry to allow Utahns to assess threats in their neighborhoods or volunteer organizations.
"This bill still achieves the goal of … keeping the value of the registry by taking people off who are not a threat and keeping those who are on there," Allen said.
The bill passed the committee 7-4 and heads to the House floor.
HB18, sponsored by Rep. Fred Cox, R-West Valley City, would allow people convicted of simple kidnapping or unlawful detainment and who were required to register on the Sex Offender Registry to petition a judge to be taken off. There was only a narrow window of time when those crimes required registration, and neither now require it.
That bill passed unanimously and moves to the House floor.
Twitter: @sheena5427
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