Posted on 03/17/2006 6:37:49 AM PST by 300magnum
HARTSVILLE, S.C. - Had Tonya Dixon realized the man living across the street was a convicted sex offender, she says she would never have moved with her family to a mobile home in a quiet, isolated neighborhood.
Officers, bloodhounds and helicopters continued searching Thursday for 47-year-old Kenneth Glenn Hinson, who is wanted in connection with the rape of two teenage girls in an underground room behind his home.
Dixon, who moved to the neighborhood about two weeks ago, searched her computer after news of the assaults spread and found Hinson's mug shot on the state's sexual predator list.
"They need a big ol' sign in the yard letting people know," said Dixon, 29, who has three young children.
The two 17-year-olds were abducted and assaulted in a room under a shed on Hinson's property, Darlington County Chief Deputy Tom Gainey said. The girls were left bound but managed to free themselves. Gainey said they were able to open the trap door in the floor and kick down the shed's door.
The state attorney general's office said Hinson had been recommended for the state's sexually violent predator program, but was rejected during the screening process.
Hinson was convicted of raping a 12-year-old girl in 1991. Just before his release from prison in 2000, a review committee recommended he be committed indefinitely to a Department of Mental Health facility for treatment, said Trey Walker, a spokesman for the attorney general's office. But a circuit judge later ruled that prosecutors failed to show Hinson would likely offend again.
"We thought then that the judge made a mistake," Attorney General Henry McMaster said Friday on "Good Morning America." "I think events, if all this is true that we hear today, it appears that the man should have gone into the system, certainly."
Hinson, wanted on kidnapping and criminal sexual conduct charges, is thought to have been spotted near the Darlington-Chesterfield county line in the state's northeast corner late Wednesday, said Deputy U.S. Marshal Tim Stec. Authorities said there were several reported sightings but none were confirmed, and believe he is still in the area.
The rural road leading to Hinson's home outside Hartsville is lined with mobile homes, many of them with bikes and toys lying in the yards. The neighborhood, which one resident described as "one big family," is about 20 miles northwest of Florence where busy Interstate 95 meets Interstate 20.
Argeree Cooks, who lives with her four grandchildren down the street from Hinson's home, was worried. Her family also did not know Hinson was a sex offender, she said.
"Why couldn't they tell us?" she said. "We have seen him. They need to tell people these things."
Yes, but we aren't allowed to talk about those venues. It isn't safe. I wish I knew where I COULD talk about them, but I don't.
Correct, or at least a correct first step.
This problem has ZERO to do with judges.
It has EVERYTHING to do with the laws, which are absurdly lenient.
AFAIAC, a man who rapes a twelve-year old and who is found to be a sociopath should be killed immediately. There are those who want to pay taxes to keep such a thing confined, fed, and clothed indefinitely, that's fine with me if they win elections.
But the laws now are insufficient to do what needs to be done, and judges have nothing to do with THAT.
I think defense attorneys should be more than just representation. They charge enough to be considered a sponsor for their clients, and should be held accountable for the actions of their clients they are so willing to represent for a fee.
That would solve a lot of problems, i think.
I'd just like to point out that in Virginia, at least, parole boards never release criminals into society.
They can't ... they don't exist.
We abolished parole in the early 1990s.
I recommend other states do likewise.
Well, if I was the father of the two girls, that judge would be in for major payback.
I hear ya. I don't know what I would do if I or someone I loved were a victim of one of these dogs and then some judge let that dog out of prison. It would take a great level of restraint to not do what should have been done in the first place.
You can see from my previous post that I support mandatory sentences for sex offenses against children.
As recently publicized cases show, judges have had a great deal of latitude in sentencing these perps and in both the Vermont and Ohio cases the judges referred to the perp's right to rehabilitation, and the public's demand for incarceration as "vengeance."
People who cannot comprehend the public's right to safety and apply simple justice do not belong on the bench.
"Then they need to be impeached in cases such as these. "
Impeachement, defeat in a reelection campaign, and other constitutional means I support for getting rid of judges. I don't support having them open to all kinds of lawsuits. It might sound nice in the abstract but even the good judges would get flooded with frivialous lawsuits from criminials.
That is correct.
Any judge can shrug, hold up his palms and say "I was only following the law" as the lame excuse for failing to act as a judge in applying the law properly.
-----This problem has ZERO to do with judges.
It has EVERYTHING to do with the laws, which are absurdly lenient
Yes, and renamed it "probation." But in some ways it's the same thing.
I think that just like doctors, we should start holding these judges accountable for malpractice.
I agree with your comments 100%.
You're right about the problem being the law, not the judges.
You're right. Another place we may not want to go is letting judges put citizens away forever for crimes that they MIGHT commit in the future.
You're right about preserving judicial independence.
Yes, there are bad judges, but there is an impeachment process for that. It should be used.
You wrote, "People who cannot comprehend the public's right to safety and apply simple justice do not belong on the bench."
Do you think it is an application of simple justice to put someone away for a crime that he MIGHT commit in the future?
Interesting approach.
BRAVO!
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