Posted on 04/19/2006 9:24:57 AM PDT by Monk Dimittis
PORTLAND, Maine — Convicted sex offenders often expect to be harassed and ostracized for their actions. Until now, many didn't expect to be attacked.
After Sunday's fatal shootings of two sex offenders listed on the state's Internet sex offender registry, many of those convicted of sex crimes say they are afraid.
"It's really scary," said Raymond Roberts, a sex offender who is listed on the registry and lives near the victims. He asked that his hometown not be identified. "I live alone. I live way out in the country and basically I could be here for days, a dead body, shot."
Police say Stephen Marshall of Nova Scotia, Canada, looked up 34 sex offenders on the state's online registry before showing up at the homes of Joseph Gray, 57, of Milo, and William Elliott, 24, of Corinth, and shooting them with a .45-caliber handgun. Marshall took guns and a truck from his father in Houlton before going to the victims' homes, authorities said.
Marshall fatally shot himself Sunday night after police confronted him on a bus in Boston. Investigators hope his laptop computer, which will be handed over to Maine detectives on Friday, will provide some clues as to what motivated him to kill.
The deaths were on the minds of sex offenders at a recent treatment session in Auburn, said Scott Efland, a social worker who treats sex offenders. "One man said, `It's target practice and we're the target,'" he said.
The killings renewed concerns about the public disclosure of sex offenders' names and addresses on Internet registries. Many offenders are concerned that the Maine registry lumps all sex offenders together, whether their cases involved child sexual abuse or a domestic situation, said Kay Landry, a social worker in Augusta.
In Bellingham, Wash., police reviewed their Internet sex registry after a man used it to get two sex offenders' names and addresses, break into their home posing as an FBI agent and fatally shoot them last year. After the review, police stopped listing exact addresses; they now list the block the offenders live on.
State Rep. Patricia Blanchette, co-chair of the Legislature's Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee, said a panel created by the Legislature to study community safety and sex offender accountability should be reconstituted to examine the issue, and investigate whether some categories of offenses need to be listed.
But right now, there seems to be no call to take down the registry as a safety precaution for other convicted offenders.
"Nobody wants to see anybody cut any slack for pedophiles," Blanchette said.
Roberts, who was convicted 13 years ago for assaulting his nephew, said he thinks people should be able to get off the list if they go a certain amount of time without committing any offenses. Also, registries shouldn't give out addresses or places of employment, and offenders should be notified if somebody accesses their information so they can be on guard, he said.
"My concern is this: Is this going to happen again?" he said.
___
Associated Press Writer Glenn Adams contributed to this report.
1. There is only one registered sex offender living in our town.
2. He was convicted of child molestation.
3. He lives two blocks from the elementary school.
Hopefully I'll be finding out more about this.
But what prompts someone to pick up arms and seek out offenders they don't know, who molested someone they don't know, and take that person's life?
OK we will apply a bad case to all cases and it will be better? Screwwing a 15 year old when you are 19 is a tough break, but child molesters should be hunted like vermin.
Yup, they are only reaping a small % of the pain, fear and depression that they have bestowed upon the victims of their deviant behaviour.
They need to fear for their lives daily, they should open a hunting season on pedophiles, $500 per tag. I'll gladly take 4.
I was simply answering the question you asked with 'genuine curiosity'. I never insinuated this was the specific offense of anyone in this incident.
But since you are willing to raise the 'sex offender' bar above public urination, where do you want to set it? What about lewd conduct (aka 'copping' a feel)? Statutory rape where the 'victim' is nearly 18 and willing and the 'assailant' is only a few years older (I believe this may have been the case with William Elliot, one of the two men shot, but I haven't been able to verify that yet)? How about indecent exposure involving a couple out experiencing the thrill of 'parking' at a secluded make-out spot? And what if someone else wants a different standard than you do?
I never implied otherwise.
To the rescue!
Thanks :-)
You've got a point. As much as I think pedophiles should be executed, here in Michigan an 16 year old boy who has sex with his 16 year old girlfriend can end up on the Sexual Offender list. So can someone who got caught urinating behind a tree (indecent exposure). They need to have a specific "this person screwed a child and deserves to be publicly executed in the town square" list.
In my state, you can type in your city, and they'll list every sex offender, with a picture, and a notation as to the crime. So you have at least some idea. Of course, when you see the pictures of most of them, you'd probably keep your kids far away from them anyway.
......and your pets!
By the way, for at least one of the two men shot, you lose this bet....
From The Chronicle Herald:
Oscar Tate, who owned the land in Corinth that Mr. Elliott had kept a mobile home and junkyard on for about four years, said the young man shouldn’t have even been on the sex offender registry."He got a bad rap a few years ago," he said, pointing out that Mr. Elliott was 19 when he was arrested in 2002 for having sex with a minor — his girlfriend, who was about to turn 16.
"He had nothing to do with small kids, no boys or nothing like that," Mr. Tate said.
He said Mr. Elliott’s girlfriend waited for him to finish his four-month jail term and the two resumed their relationship.
"She was with him when he got shot," he said.
What do you expect pervert, Tea and Cake?
That is my reaction, as well.
Somehow I think that sex offenders aren't going to get very much sympathy here on FR.
Gee, darn.
poetic justice.....
this is exactly why we don't want these people let out!
the rest of us KNOW that their crimes WILL HAPPEN AGAIN!...not WONDERING about it....so as to their "concern" ----DITTO!
now REAP IT!
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