Finally a legislative act you can be proud of...
You know, as a North Carolinian, I am required to make jokes about the folks living just south of my home state's border (never you worry, they tell the same exact jokes about us), but today, I have to applaud the good and wise legislators down in the South Carolina House.
The SC House voted 84-27 to agree to the state Senate's bill which allows prosecutors to seek the death penalty for repeat child offenders. This new law would potentially put anyone convicted of sexually abusing two or more children under 11 on death row. Of course, opponents accused the legislators of election year pandering. With an 84-27 margin, it doesn't appear that pandering is necessary, my friends, the ayes seem to hold a pretty clear majority.
Personally, I have to ask, pandering to whom? I'm guessing most South Carolinians would say the bill is still to soft on perpetrators. I mean it's a damn fine start but...
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Well, since pandering was mentioned elsewhere, I will have to ask the question again: If this was so vital of an issue, why did it get put off until the start of the election season?
Yeah, I know... voters only look at "what have you done recently?" Heck, even the Oscars usually only get won by movies released in December. But this is democracy, folks! Is it too much to expect for people to look a little deeper than last week?
Comment by Michael— 2006/06/01 @ 07:02 AM — (Reply)
The bill appears to be in direct response to crimes committed recently.
Comment by Cate— 2006/06/01 @ 11:29 AM — (Reply)
Hi Cate,
I read the link, and investigated the story as well. I'm not saying this isn't a worthwhile bill. Who the heck would be for child molester rights???
But... this law totally misses its target. Kenneth Hinson (as far as I could discover) had only one conviction against a 12-year old, and his recent arrest was for abducting and raping 2 17-year olds.
The problem was not that he hadn't been put to death (which, even under this law, he wouldn't have!), but that a lenient judge let him out of jail having served just 9 of his 20 year sentence, denied the prosecution's request that he be put permanently in a mental health institution, and then even refused the request that he be assigned to a program for sexually violent predators.
So, rather than actually address what went wrong, the legislators (coincidentally in an election year) stand up and bravely pass a law that could not have prevented this horror from happening in the first place!
It would be like, oh... I don't know... Terrorists blowing up a major national icon, and our government saying that we need to secretly spy on what books people are checking out from the library. Crazy, huh?
Comment by Michael— 2006/06/01 @ 12:31 PM — (Reply)
And I'll also grant that this law doesn't even begin to ver what ought to be done to child molesters, IMHO. So, a kid who's 13 matters less than a kid who's 12?
And yet, the pandering issue seems out of place here if for no other reason than the 84-27 majority. Are there 84 seat up for grabs this year? 84?
As for the law's lack of pertinence to the Hinson case, I can only say what I'm sure you will agree is true and that is that a proposed bill and a signed law start in the same place and often end up like the two roads that diverged in Frost's poem... nothing alike.
Do you believe that every act of congress is pandering? Or just those made in election years? (Not sure how to answer that myself)
Comment by Cate— 2006/06/01 @ 01:22 PM — (Reply)