Published: March 27, 2006 10:25 pm      

New version of 'Logan's Law' close

CHARLESTON — An ad hoc panel of lawmakers, police officers, prosecutors and corrections officials are near agreement on a new version of “Logan’s Law,” but some Republicans are insisting judges be denied the options of suspended sentences and probation for sexual predators.

A second conference call comes off Friday as the Manchin administration works toward a goal of enhanced penalties on sex crimes against children.

One stumbling block yet to be resolved is a Republican commitment to make the stronger penalties mandatory, rather than give judges the discretion to suspend them and place convicted sexual offenders on probation.

“We want to make sure we strengthen penalties but also make sure we would not allow sexual predators to be on the streets through probation or through suspended sentences,” Delegate Tim Armstead, R-Kanawha, said Monday.

“That is a concern we’re going to have to look at.”

A tentative bill includes the element of civil commitment — the ability to keep predators locked up beyond normal sentences — but uses existing law on mental evaluations to deal with people considered unfit to re-enter society.

However, Armstead said, the proposal before the special blue ribbon panel calls for “some additional parameters” in deciding how such convicts are recommitted.

Enhanced penalties are prescribed for anyone 18 and older who commits first-degree sexual assault or abuse, of a child under 12. A first offense for assault can bring a perpetrator a term of 25 to 100 years. Abuse can expose the convicted to a 5-to-25-year sentence.

But in some sexual offenses where the victim is 13 or 14, the delegate said, the offender could be designated a pedophile but not face increased penalties.

Sen. Russ Weeks, R-Raleigh, took part in the first conference call last Friday, and wanted to know if penalties are mandatory.

“There was this deafening silence,” he said. “Then they came up with all kinds of reasons for giving a judge latitude to do this and the other. I like the enhanced penalties. That’s a starting point. If they would include mandatory sentences, I would feel a whole lot better about it.”

Otherwise, he said, the proposed law would permit offenders to roam the streets and the only safeguards in place would be electronic monitoring devices and the sex offender registry.

“The ankle bracelet and sex registry list don’t protect anybody,” said Weeks, who is serving on the ad hoc committee. “The governor’s own lawyer agreed with me on that.”

Communications director Lara Ramsburg said Gov. Joe Manchin wants approval as soon as possible on “Logan’s Law,” named after a Putnam County toddler slain after a pattern of what his aunts describe as sexual abuse.

But before Manchin calls a special session, possibly in April or May, Ramsburg said, the governor wants to make sure the House and Senate are on the same page, so rules can be suspended and the proposal acted on in a single day without any hang-ups.

“This is something that needs to be addressed sooner than later,” she said.

Delegate Kelli Sobonya, R-Cabell, got the ball rolling last September by calling for a tough new law targeting pedophiles, and Manchin then included this in his State of the State address.

Eventually, a compromise version of Manchin’s proposal was produced by Senate Judiciary Chairman Jeffrey Kessler, D-Marshall, and Sen. Clark Barnes, R-Randolph.

“We were only looking at enhanced penalties for sexually violent predators and pedophiles,” Barnes said. “It was a fairly narrow scope. These are the frightening people.”

Barnes said he reasoned that some stiff resistance would emerge — and, in fact, his concerns proved prophetic — if the radius were enlarged.

“My effort was to try to get something through that would take the worst people off the street for longer periods of time,” he said.

Then, if necessary, he said, lawmakers could return a year from now and beef it up even more.

Kessler squared off on the final night of the session with Minority Leader Vic Sprouse, R-Kanawha, while leading an 11th hour effort to reject a House version. Sprouse had steered through a stronger concept of the Kessler-Barnes measure that essentially doubled penalties for all sex offenses.

Kessler felt the House bill, which incorporated much of the Sprouse amendment, would subject teenage boys to a lifetime label of violent sexual predator for engaging in consensual sex with under-age girls.

In rebuttal, Sprouse maintained the Democratic leadership wanted to kill the bill because it was a Republican idea in the first place.

Sen. Billy Wayne Bailey, D-Wyoming, one of five Democrats voting in the minority on the Sprouse amendment, said the Kessler-Barnes measure should have been accepted.

“When Logan’s Law first hit the floor in the Senate, they had an amendment that tightened up on sexual predators,” he said. “That’s what we were after. If you took what those two worked on and the judiciary committee worked on, it makes a strong enough law to protect children from sexual predators. That’s what it was all about.”

Barnes agreed there is no room for compromise on the matter of mandatory sentencing — a feature in the bill he hammered out initially with Kessler.

The tentative proposal also includes mandatory predator designations on driver’s licenses or identification cards.

“My complaint is really with leadership in that they control the flow of legislation,” Sobonya said.

“They controlled when the bill would be placed on the committee agendas. They controlled when it would be reported out to the other legislative body for consideration. They control the legislative agenda.”

Sobonya pointed out Manchin issued a call for a tougher sexual predator law on the first day of the session.

“To wait until the end of the session to take it up while we name bridges and roads and create a dozen new license plates is beyond me,” she said.

Bargainers are working on a draft handed them by House Speaker Bob Kiss, D-Raleigh, and Senate President Earl Ray Tomblin, D-Logan.

“We are close to a consensus,” Soboyna said.

Still, a major sticking point is the ability of judges to exercise discretion in suspending sentences or imposing probation.

“To me, that is not acceptable,” she said.

“I believe right now murder is the only crime that takes the judge’s discretion away relating to suspended sentences. I believe child rapists should have the same penalty and not be allowed to have home confinement or suspended sentences.”