SCHR: Litigation Challenging HB 1059: Georgia's Sex Offender Law

Legislative Update

January 25, 2008

SCHR Comments on HB 908- Sex offender legislation

These comments are being distributed to legislators by SCHR staff as they consider their vote on HB 908.
 

HB 908 will be a logistical nightmare for law enforcement

• Under the 2006 law, law enforcement were forced to spend countless hours as surveyors, measuring and re-measuring 1,000 feet distances to find addresses that meet the strict permitted criteria. This will continue to consume an inordinate amount of time that will prohibit them from performing other public safety duties.
   
• Under HB 908, law enforcement will also be required to become experts on real estate.  Law Enforcement will have to keep track of whom under their jurisdiction who rents their homes versus who owns their homes and the date they purchased their homes.

HB 908 includes unconstitutional provisions

• Section 42-1-15(e) allows for sex offenders who own their homes prior to July 1 2006 to be exempt from the residency restrictions.  This is problematic for the following reasons:
  • Georgia courts have repeatedly held that renters are protected by the takings clause, just like homeowners.
  • Suppose someone who moved in next door to a church 20 years ago.  The church was there first, but the sex offender law only went into effect in 2006. This sounds like an unconstitutional taking.
     
• The “volunteer” language in section (c)(1) is likely unconstitutional as applied to churches.

HB 908 relies solely on counterproductive residency restrictions for public safety

§         There is no demonstrated protective effect of residency restrictions that justifies the huge draining of scarce law enforcement resources in the effort to enforce the restriction. Law Enforcement believes that these restrictions cause more people to stop reporting, absconding from registration:

o        Sheriff McGuffey of Coweta County stated that he can keep better tabs on known offenders without the residency restrictions.  If a sex offender is constantly being forced to move, “they're more apt to go underground and hide,” he said.[i]

o        Sheriff Brown of DeKalb County told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that when the Legislature reconvenes in January, he hopes lawmakers will pay more attention to law enforcement.  “It's not like we're soft on this issue, but we don't believe it should be so restrictive that it will force people underground into hiding as opposed to registering,” Brown said. “We want to know where they are.”[ii]

o        Lt. Wanda Edwards of the Lowndes County Sheriff’s Department predicted that the law would cause people to abscond, and stated “what people don’t realize is that the public will be in more danger if the new provisions are upheld and must be enforced.”[iii]

§         According to a 2003 study commissioned by the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles, stability in offenders’ residence and employment reduces recidivism and furthers public safety.   The study found that there is a 25% increase in the likelihood of re-offending each time a parolee changes address. 

§         Approximately 90% of sexual offenses against children are committed by someone the child knows and trusts.[iv]   Residency restrictions perpetuate the myth that the greatest danger to children is from strangers.  By misdirecting our attention in a way that has us singularly focused on stranger abduction, we ignore or miss the signs of child sexual abuse when it occurs.

HB 908 is another inappropriate “one size fits all” law

• HB 908 casts too wide a net.  People who had consensual sex as teenagers are treated exactly the same as pedophiles, or people convicted of rape.  A better law would make distinctions between these groups.
   
• Under HB 908, sheriffs’ deputies and probation officers will continue to be forced to spend countless hours and wasted scarce resources monitoring people who pose no risk.   There are 14,500 people on Georgia’s sex offender registry.  Some are serious offenders.  Many are not.  At present, law enforcement is stretched beyond its capacity in monitoring people who pose little danger. 
   
• Wendy Whitaker, Jeffrey York and many others are on the registry for having had consensual sex as teenagers.
  
   
  • Jeffery York was 17 when he had consensual oral sex with a 15-year-old.  Placed on the sex offender registry, Georgia’s 1,000-foot residency restriction forced Jeffery to move out of his home.  It was too close to a school.  He moved in with his grandmother, but had to move again when he discovered his grandmother's house was within 1,000 feet of a child care center.  Jeffrey now lives in a camper van in the woods without running water or electricity. 
    
     
  • Wendy Whitaker was 17 when she had consensual oral sex with a 15-year-old boy.  Both were sophomores in high school.  Because of this one act, committed ten years ago, Ms. Whitaker and her husband were forced from their home.
    
     
• Under HB 908, even terminally ill people in hospice care must move for living within 1,000 feet of a church. A better law would allow exceptions for people who no longer present a danger to society.
  
   
  • People with advanced Alzheimer’s disease and people in hospice care are also on the registry and have been subject to eviction. 
    
     
  • Daniel Anderson, age 81, is on the sex offender registry because years ago, he was convicted of statutory rape.  Now, however, he has advanced Alzheimer’s disease, is losing the power of speech and doesn’t recognize family members.