Posted on 11/16/2006 7:37:05 AM PST by SmithL
SAN FRANCISCO - A lawsuit challenging the voter-approved measure that toughens restrictions on where registered sex offenders may live should be dismissed because it does not specify any penalties for violators, California's attorney general says.
Proposition 83 prohibits registered sex offenders from living within 2,000 feet of a school or park. A day after the measure passed Nov. 7, an unidentified California registered sex offender who lives within the 2,000 boundary filed the lawsuit, arguing, among other things, that it punishes him for a crime he's already paid for.
Attorney General Bill Lockyer moved late Wednesday to dismiss the lawsuit, arguing in a brief that Proposition 83 "does not call for punishment, mush less imprisonment, for violation of the residency restriction."
While the measure makes living within the 2,000-foot boundary illegal, it does not add any crimes to the state's criminal statutes.
The plaintiff, identified in court papers as John Doe, is not on parole or probation for a sex crime. He was convicted 15 years ago and served no time.
Lockyer's office also said the lawsuit should be dismissed because the measure does not apply to registered sex offenders like John Doe who are already living in a prohibited area and who are not on parole or probation. It was not immediately known how many California registered sex offenders are living within 2,000-foot zones and who are no longer on parole or probation.
There are some 90,000 registered sex offenders in California's communities, but the attorney general's brief only addressed how the law applies to persons such as John Doe. Which registered sex offenders the law ultimately would cover is to be the subject of further litigation.
A spokesman for the measure's author, State Sen. George Runner, R-Lancaster, said he did not intend for it to apply to sex offenders already in the community.
"We've stipulated all along in every news article in which Sen. Runner was quoted that it was his intent that it would be prospective only," Runner's spokesman Will Smith said.
Shortly after the lawsuit was filed, U.S. District Judge Susan Illston temporarily blocked the 2,000-foot requirement from taking effect, ruling that it was likely unconstitutional as applied to sex offenders in the community because it amounted to new punishment on them after their convictions. Illston set a Nov. 27 hearing.
The so-called Jessica's Law also increases prison terms for sex offenders and requires lifetime satellite tracking for rapists, child molesters and other felony sex criminals upon their release from prison. None of those provisions was a part of the lawsuit.
The proposition is named for Jessica Lunsford, a 9-year-old Florida girl who was kidnapped, raped and suffocated by a convicted sex offender last year. More than 70 percent of voters approved the measure Nov. 7.
The case is Doe v. Schwarzenegger, 06-6968.
Demonrats are the party of perverts. This is what Demonrats do to America. And what their judges support.
Don't make statements when you have been drinking Bill.
So much for "democracy."
In America, there's at least one "victim" to be found anywhere that can be used to silence and control the majority who fight to remain free. One judge, just one, who abuses his/her power can destroy a nation.
It was a poorly written law to begin with and should not have been passed. The proposition system thrives because of the failures in Sacramento.
Democrats taking over the house and senate was a poor decision, too, but that's what the voters voted for. Should we find a "victim" of the election and sue to change it, too?
The people have spoken. What right does the court have to re-vote their votes for them?
Yes! If anyone had their constitutional rights violated during the election then we should sue.
If I was a victim (or mother of the victim) and the rapist bas*ard was set free it doesn't matter where he lives - he's a dead man as soon as he settles in. Tortured first.
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