`SEXUAL PREDATORS' LAW SIGNED

Convicted "sexual predators" will have the Missouri Department of Corrections looking over their shoulders for the rest of their lives under legislation signed into law Thursday by Gov. Mel Carnahan.

The governor, accompanied by state legislators and the director of the Department of Corrections, ceremonially signed the bill at Common Pleas Courthouse in Cape Girardeau.

"Too many times we have picked up newspapers to find that these violators of human decency are on the streets once more to attack another innocent woman or child," Carnahan said. "Their offenses are so severe and the threat of additional crimes so great that we must take extraordinary action to keep these sexual predators from ever striking again."

The law, which takes effect Aug. 28, requires life sentences for predatory sexual offenders and increases the mandatory minimum sentence they must serve in prison. If released, such offenders will spend the rest of their lives under state supervision.

House Speaker Steve Gaw, D-Moberly, the original House sponsor of the bill, called it "unique to this country."

While other states have enacted laws extending state supervision over serious sex offenders after they have completed their sentences, in many cases those laws have not passed constitutional muster. Courts have struck such laws down as additional punishments.

"This legislation avoids that problem by applying the life sentence up front at conviction," Gaw said.

The law defines sexual predators as offenders with prior convictions for forcible or statutory rape, forcible or statutory sodomy, sexual abuse and child molestation.

"In each of these classifications of sexual predator, sentences are doubled and in some cases tripled over what these criminals would serve under our old law," Carnahan said.

Those with first-time convictions can be considered sexual predators if it is proven beyond a reasonable doubt at sentencing that other offenses occurred, even if they were never arrested for those crimes. Out-of-state convictions also will be considered at sentencing.

Department of Corrections director, Dr. Dora Schriro, said it is estimated that convicted sex offenders have committed an average of 300 sex crimes before they were ever caught.

The law does not apply to those already in prison unless they are convicted of other violent sex crimes after release.

In 1995, 341 people were convicted of violent sexual offenses in Missouri, said Schriro. Currently there are 2,318 such felons in Missouri prisons.

Although predatory sex offenders comprise a small segment of the prison population, she said that segment poses an extreme danger.

"There are an unfixable few of about 50 sex offenders per year that will always be at risk of re-offending," Schriro said. "There will always be a cell and our excellent corrections staff to manage this very difficult group."

Offenders who complete their minimum prison terms will only be released if Department of Corrections staff feel the person isn't likely to re-offend. After release they will remain on parole for the rest of their lives and can be returned to prison for violating conditions of their parole.

"Probation and parole staff will monitor all the particulars of their day-to-day lives," Schriro said. This includes approving where and with whom offenders live and work and making sure they participate in treatment and counseling programs.

The measure also eliminates 120-day "shock" sentences for such violent sex offenders and allows the public to request information from local law enforcement on registered offenders in their community.

Also attending the signing were Rep. Wayne Crump, D-Potosi, and Sen. Betty Sims, R-St. Louis, the bill's sponsors; staff from the Farmington and Potosi correctional facilities; and local probation and parole officers.

While in Cape Girardeau, Carnahan attended a $500-per-plate dinner at Royal N'Orleans restaurant. Proceeds from the dinner will go toward his re-election campaign.