Category Archive for : ‘STATE BY STATE NEW YORK’

Newsday/Emi Endo

Registered sex offenders are prohibited from living within a quarter mile of schools, day carecenters and playgrounds under a bill signed into law by Suffolk County executive Steve Levy earlierthis week. Such regulations may reduce attacks by removing the daily eyeshot contact that a sexoffender can have with potential victims, said Laura Ahearn, executive director of Parents forMegan’s Law, a victims’ rights organization based in Stony Brook. Others, however, said merelypushing offenders into other areas without surveillance is not effective. Grier Weeks, executivedirector of the National Association to Protect

Having recently passed measures to prevent sex offenders from dropping off the Megan’s Law registry, state officials are continuing to push ahead to strengthen laws that would keep sex offenders behind bars, with several new proposals coming out of the Senate, Assembly and governor’s office last week.  It’s stricter than what’s being proposed right now by the federal government, said Laura Ahearn, executive director of Parents for Megan’s Law, about legislation that was passed by the Senate and Assembly on January 17, and signed the same day by Governor George

A convicted rapist likely serves less than 3 years in prison.  A convicted sexual abuser spends about a year and a half in prison and a sexual offender convicted of a lesser felony likely sees less than 6 months in prison.  Under new proposals from Gov. George Pataki, the time served as a result of plea bargains and other factors would change.  Sentences would

increase to as much as 25 years to life and life in prison without the chance of parole.  The minimum sentence for conviction of a sex

Governor Pataki yesterday signed into law a bill that will keep thousands of sex offenders from disappearing off a state monitoring list.  He signed the Megan’s Law measure about an hour after it gained final legislative approval.  This new legislation will ensure that all sex offenders remain on the registry, most for life, and continue to give every parent and family the right to know exactly where sex offenders live, Pataki said.  The new law will require offenders who are deemed at moderate risk of committing another sex crime to

After months of criticism, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver yesterday unveiled a plan to crack down on sexual predators that would authorize keeping some fiends locked up after their jail terms expire.  Silver and the Assembly Democrats have been slammed by Governor Pataki and others for repeatedly blocking legislation that would allow for civil confinement.

(Albany, New York)

Victims of childhood sexual abuse who have been turned away at the courthouse door when they tried to sue may finally get their day or year in court.  Queens Assemblywoman Margaret Markey, flanked in Albany yesterday by those who said they were abused by

Roman Catholic priests when they were minors, is pushing the state Legislature   to pass a bill she’s sponsoring that would allow victims a one-time, one-year window to file claims that otherwise expired a long time ago.  Under current law, an abuse victim has five years