Unshelved by Bill Barnes and Gene Ambaum
comic strip overdue media

Monday, March 15, 2004

A worthy cause

From my mailbag; you no doubt have seen the ticker at the top of this screen. Here's some information from the folks who run it. there's been a lot of debate over 'knee-jerk' legislation like this; certainly the wording should be carefully crafted so as not to hobble the whole system. But should people who molest our kids really just be let out after a few months? Rehabilitation of sexual predators is a very difficult (and some would say, impossible) task. I'm not sure you can treat this type of criminal the same as, say, a serial robber or drug offender.
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*** Joe Brucia wants to keep sexual predators behind bars and
*** Code Amber does too.
***

On Tuesday, March 16 in Jacksonville Florida a convicted child molester will be released from prison after serving only 8 MONTHS of a ONE YEAR sentence. This man was only sentenced to ONE YEAR after pleading guilty to THREE counts of child molestation! Each count COULD HAVE resulted in a FIFTEEN year sentence, a total of 45 years.

Instead, he will walk the streets again after only 8 months.

Draft legislation for Carlie's Law will be introduced at a press conference on Tuesday, March 16 in Jacksonville.

March 16 would have been Carlie's 12th birthday.

In addition to the draft Florida State legislation being introduced on Tuesday, there is currently draft federal legislation in process to provide the same stringent sentencing guidelines and accountability for judges not only in sentencing but parole and bail issues as well.

Code Amber together with Joe Brucia will be working diligently to do whatever it takes to get these laws passed at the Federal and State levels.

We expect to have the full draft of both bills available later this month. At that time we will open a new site, carlieslaw.org. We will publish the proposed bills along with links for you to email your legislators to show your support, and to encourage them to support the legislation.

Code Amber supporters are a force to be reckoned with and together we can make a difference.

You can read more about Joe's position and our joint effort on the Code Amber web site http://codeamber.org

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