LD 1157 signed, Good News???

One step taken to change the registry, a possible ray of hope. But questions remain, who will be allowed off the Registry? What is the process to get off? Plus shouldn't the State have to prove you are dangerous, to keep you on the Registry? The people that are covered by this bill are those that had already been out of prison and living crime free lives for over 10 years and in many cases 20 years. You have to be on the registry to petition to get off it, so those who have been fighting to stay off will have to let themselves go on the Registry before they can get off it. There is no provision to let someone petition to be excluded from the Registry. I feel the State should have to give someone their Due Process in these cases. That in order to place a person on the Registry after they have been out of jail and off all probation/parole and have been living a law abiding life, the State has the obligation to prove that that person poses a risk, in a court of Law. And then and only then could they list the person. The question everyone should be asking is, how much risk does a person who has re-entered society and is living offense free for life years, pose? What is the purpose of Registering them? Keep on asking these tough questions and make the government answer them and then maybe we can see some real change.

Baldacci Signs Bill to Reform State's Sex Offender Registry - 6/16/09 12:04 PM EST Gov. John Baldacci has signed a bill that will allow some convicted sex offenders to petition to get their names removed from the state's online sex offender registry. The registry has been the subject of several lawsuits by offenders who were swept into it retroactively, long after they had served their sentences. The measure's sponsor, Rep. Ann Haskell, a Portland Democrat who co-chairs the Legislature's Criminal Justice Committee, says petitioners will have to prove that they haven't committed any additional crimes in order to be removed from the registry. "What we've done is help to provide for those people who were convicted between '82 and '92, basically, who were subjected to the retroactive implications of the registry," Haskell told Capitol News Service. Haskell says more work needs to be done on the registry. She says she'd like to see a tiered system where sexual predators stay on the public website and others are registered only with police.