Posted on 01/30/2005 2:19:56 PM PST by Dan from Michigan
Michigan will post photos of sex offenders online
1/30/2005, 4:48 p.m. ET
The Associated Press
LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Michigan plans to start posting the photos of convicted sex offenders on the Internet in May, a move some say will keep the public safer but others say is unfair to offenders who are on the list but aren't considered dangerous.
Thirty-nine other states already post the photos of convicted sex offenders online. Michigan has been posting the addresses of offenders since 1999, but the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2003 that the photos of convicted offenders also could be publicly released.
Michigan now has 36,068 sex offenders on its registry.
Amber Pollick of Macomb County's Clinton Township lobbied the Michigan Legislature to pass the law that allowed photos to be posted. Pollick was raped by her uncle in Florida when she was 14. Her uncle was allowed to return to Michigan while awaiting an appeal, and officials say other victims came forward during that time.
"I knew by doing this is would help prevent someone from going through what I went through," Pollick, 19, told The Detroit News for a Sunday story.
State Rep. Leon Drolet, R-Clinton Township, said the photos will help neighbors recognize someone who might be dangerous. But they also will prevent confusion between innocent people and sex offenders who have the same name.
Those on the list who aren't a threat to society say the photos will make their lives worse.
Kevin Connelly, 22, who was prosecuted for having a relationship with a 15-year-old girl when he was 18, said its unfair his picture will be posted for 25 years. Connelly is now in college and says he can't consider a career in teaching or social work because he's on the registry.
"I think there should be a sex offender list, but not for people like me who had high school romances," Connelly said.
The state passed laws last year that allow people who aren't considered predators to petition a court to reduce their time on the list to 10 years. Martin Blum, a defense lawyer in Bloomfield Hills, says the change didn't help much.
"If the underlying offense that required their registration has been dismissed, then the requirement for them to register as sex offenders should be gone with it," Blum said.
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On the Net:
Michigan sex offender registry,
http://www.mipsor.state.mi.us
They tried to do that here in Massachusetts, too, but the Statehouse server kept crashing with a "too many files" error message...
Say what? "man enough to like em young"???
Local case, couple was dating since Jr high... he was old for the grade, she was young... she got pregnant at age 15 and he was 18. Parents pressed charges, and now this guy's got a criminal record and is on the Sex Offender's List!!!
There is a world of difference between HS pregnancies and the local 25 year old crack dealer who impregnates 13 year olds (and hooks them on drugs, and turns them into prostitutes). Again, a local case.
Finally, no one can show me where such lists actually work. If a law doesn't work then it should either be changed so that it does work, or taken off of the books.
'Sex offender' doesn't not always mean child molester, you know.
Two in one! good job!
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