Chelsea's Law targets child molesters and clears first hurdle (mandate life sentences)

[The Straight Story]

Chelsea's Law targets child molesters and clears first hurdle

SACRAMENTO (AP) - A bill that would mandate life
sentences for some convicted child molesters cleared its first
legislative committee after a grieving father evoked the memory of his slain daughter.

Republican Assemblyman Nathan Fletcher of San Diego proposed the bill after the slaying of a 17-year-old girl in a county park. A
convicted child molester pleaded guilty last week to raping and
killing Chelsea King and a 14-year-old girl.

Fletcher's bill, named Chelsea's Law, also would require
lifetime parole and GPS monitoring. It would ban sex offenders from parks and other areas where children gather.

Chelsea King's father, Brent, asked members of the Assembly
Public Safety Committee to advance the bill on Tuesday. Four
approved it, while three abstained.

http://www.news10.net/news/story.aspx?storyid=79819&catid=2

[mike_c]

1. America's puritan obsession with punishment continues to drive politics...

...and public discourse.

We need to take a long step back from the edge when we begin talking about life-time punishment for just about anything without the possibility of rehab or redemption.

All the folks who chime in to say that child molesters should be tortured to death, imprisoned for life, or whatever will simply prove my point. The American obsession with punishment-- three strikes laws, get tough on crime, whatever-- is completely irrational. It has NEVER demonstrably reduced crime. It's just revenge, one of the ugliest of human emotions.

Full disclosure: I was sexually molested by a neighborhood man as a young child. Now, I hope the dude got his jones under control for his sake-- I didn't suffer any lasting damage, and I certainly would not wish for even a day of punishment for him, let alone a lifetime. That is just insane.

[customerserviceguy]

2. I guess you have the right to forgive your attacker

but society says that he doesn't get forgiveness until he's done his time. Clearly, for the worst of the worst, that means never being on the outside again.

At least you have the ability to forgive your attacker. There are tens of thousands of dead kids out there who don't have that opportunity.