[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 35 (Monday, March 27, 2006)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2405-S2407]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                               DRU'S LAW

  Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, this coming month it will be 2 years since 
the body of a young woman named Dru Sjodin was found in Crookston, MN.

[[Page S2406]]

Dru Sjodin was a young woman, a college student at the University of 
North Dakota, who walked out of a North Dakota shopping center at about 
5 o'clock in the afternoon. She was abducted, a search was made for 
her, and some months later her body was found near Crookston, MN. She 
had been brutally murdered.
  I have visited with her parents a number of times. The more I have 
come to know the details of her abduction and her murder--and since 
that time I have come to know the details of other abductions and 
murders, in many cases of young children in our country--it is clear 
that Congress needs to take some action to deal with some of these 
issues.
  What happened to Dru Sjodin was a vicious, almost unspeakable crime 
for which a man will soon be tried for murder.
  The man who has been arrested and will be on trial shortly for the 
murder of Dru Sjodin is Alfonso Rodriguez, Jr. He has served prison 
time for rape. He was sentenced to 23 years in prison for a violent 
rape. At the end of his sentence, he was deemed by prison officials--
including psychiatrists and psychologists--to be at high risk of 
reoffending.
  Despite that, he was let out of prison with little or no supervision. 
The State's attorney in the jurisdiction where he was prosecuted was 
not notified of his pending release. He was released without any 
significant supervision. And within 6 months--it is alleged--he 
murdered Dru Sjodin.
  I have proposed a piece of legislation called Dru's Law, and gotten 
it passed by the Senate twice. It still has not passed the House. Dru's 
Law is title II in a comprehensive piece of legislation reported out 
October of last year by the Senate Judiciary Committee, yet that bill 
has also not been brought to the floor of the Senate.
  Let me describe the legislation I put together because I was 
astounded when I took a look at Federal and State laws that so little 
information is available about those who have committed violent sexual 
offenses.
  First of all, there has not been a national database of convicted sex 
offenders. A year ago, I met with the Attorney General and talked to 
him about Dru's Law. When the Attorney General took office he began the 
development of a national database, administratively. We need to do 
that in law. And provisions of Dru's Law would require the development 
of a national database of sex offenders that is accessible to the 
public. So the bill requires the development of a national database of 
sex offenders accessible to the public.

  Second, it requires States to notify prosecutors of impending release 
of high-risk sex offenders. When we have sex offenders who have 
committed violent acts, there is a substantial amount of information 
demonstrating it is very likely, upon release, they will recommit those 
violent acts. When seen by psychiatrists and psychologists and 
evaluated for high-risk activities upon their release, it seems to me 
when those high-risk offenders are about to be released from prison, 
their names should be given to the local State's attorney where they 
were prosecuted so the State's attorney would have the time and 
capability to determine whether they wanted to seek civil commitment, 
which is to say further incarceration to protect the public. That is a 
procedure that many States have allowed.
  In this case, the alleged murder by Alfonso Rodriguez, who the 
experts alleged would be at great risk for reoffending, if he had been 
civilly committed, he would not have been on the streets.
  What is happening too often now, violent sex offenders are let out of 
prison at the end of the term without so much as a wave, ``so long, 
good luck.'' That is not what should happen, and this brings me to the 
third piece of the bill. If, in fact, a high-risk sex offender is 
released from prison, there must be monitoring by the States upon their 
release for at least 1 year.
  Martha Stewart is put in prison and let out of prison and she wears 
an ankle bracelet. Martha Stewart is wearing an ankle bracelet, and 
high-risk sex offenders are let out of prison with a wave, ``so long, 
see you later.'' Then they abduct and murder children. It is not just 
Dru Sjodin. I can go through an entire list of young people who have 
been abducted and murdered by people we knew about, people whose names 
we had, people who had been serving time in prison but were let out 
with a wave, to say, ``so long, see you later.''
  Now, I mentioned that Dru's Law, which has the three provisions I 
described, has twice been passed by the Senate by unanimous consent. 
But the House has not taken it up and as a result it is not now law.
  I have not stopped trying to get Dru's Law passed. In fact, Dru's Law 
has now been incorporated into S. 1086, the Sex Offender Registration 
and Notification Act, has been authored by Senators Hatch and Biden, 
both former chairmen of the Senate Judiciary Committee. It is 
legislation I fully support. It is terrific legislation. I commend both 
of them for doing a great job.
  Title II of that legislation incorporates all of Dru's Law. That 
legislation is cosponsored also by Senator Specter, who is the current 
chairman of the Judiciary Committee. And I'm happy to say that S. 1086 
passed out of the Judiciary Committee in October of last year.
  Yet S. 1086 has not been considered by the full Senate. I don't 
understand that. The majority leader has told us what we are going to 
consider. We are going to consider constitutional amendments on gay 
marriage, constitutional amendments on flag desecration. The list goes 
on and on and on, but we do not have time to consider this? This is 
important. This is life or death in many instances.
  We have had time for a free trade agreement with the country of 
Bahrain. Boy, that is a priority. What would have happened if we had 
not had a trade agreement with Bahrain? We passed the Delaware Water 
Gap National Recreation Area Improvement Act. We did the Benjamin 
Franklin National Memorial Commemoration Act. We have done a lot of 
things here, but we did not have time to bring up S. 1086, the Sex 
Offender Registration and Notification Act? I don't understand that.
  There is a recent study that found 72 percent of the highest risk 
sexual offenders reoffend within 6 years of being released from prison. 
The Bureau of Justice Statistics has determined that sex offenders 
released from prison are over 10 times more likely to be arrested for a 
sexual crime than individuals who have no record of a sexual assault.
  This legislation is endorsed by a good many people. Dru's Law has 18 
cosponsors in the Senate. Senators Hatch and Leahy have worked closely 
with me to pass Dru's Law separately, as a standalone bill.
  Mark Lunsford, the father of 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford, is a strong 
supporter of this. Jessica Lunsford, this country might remember, was 
abducted a year or so ago from her bedroom in her Florida home. Her 
body was found a month later. The crime was committed by a 46-year-old 
convicted sex offender with a 30-year criminal history. After 
committing the assault of Jessica and the murder of Jessica, John 
Couey, the man who committed this crime, fled across State lines to 
Savannah, GA. Had he not been recaptured, he very likely would have 
reoffended in Georgia, as well.
  Mr. Lunsford wrote me a letter about Dru's death:

       If my daughter's death is going to have any meaning, it 
     will be efforts such as yours that strengthen existing laws 
     by making our streets safer for all children. My heart 
     continues to break as I mourn the loss of my beautiful little 
     girl. I do not want other families to suffer as mine has done 
     and I believe that your effort will go far toward that 
     important goal.

  This bill is endorsed by Marc Klaas, the father of 12-year-old Polly 
Klaas, who was kidnaped and murdered by a previously diagnosed sex 
offender. Mr. Klaas wrote:

       I would like to reiterate my full support of this important 
     effort.

  It does not take the recitation of 100 cases, but let me mention 
Sarah Michelle Lunde, 13 years old. She disappeared and was found dead. 
David Onstott, a convicted sex offender, who once had a relationship 
with the girl's mother, has confessed to killing her.
  Jetseta Gage of Cedar Rapids, IA, was abducted, sexually assaulted, 
and murdered. Roger Paul Bentley was arrested for that crime, a 
convicted sex offender on Iowa's sex registry.

[[Page S2407]]

  The list goes on and on and on and on. I held a meeting in Fargo, ND, 
about a year ago to describe how important it is to track sex 
offenders' movements across State lines. I held a town meeting in 
Fargo, ND, to talk about the issue of violent sex offenders. This was 
an outgrowth of the information I had developed as a result of Dru 
Sjodin's murder.
  Before that meeting in Fargo, I checked the registry in North Dakota 
to find out the names of convicted sex offenders living within walking 
distance of the place I was going to have a meeting.
  One name kind of jumped out to me and I described the case to the 
people at the meeting: Joseph E. Duncan. I did not know him, I had 
never previously heard of him. But in 1980 when Joseph Duncan was a 16 
year old, he abducted a 14-year-old boy who had been walking in his 
neighborhood, sexually assaulted the boy twice at gunpoint, pled guilty 
to rape in the first degree, and was sentenced to 20 years in prison. 
He was released from prison July 14, 2000, after completing a 20-year 
sentence. Because he completed his full term, he was released without 
parole and without probation. He went to live in North Dakota within 
walking distance of city hall in Fargo.
  So I mentioned to the people in Fargo about five cases of people who 
were convicted sex offenders who lived within walking distance of city 
hall, just to describe the people who were living in our midst. What I 
didn't know when I mentioned it that day in Fargo was that 1 month 
earlier, Joseph E. Duncan had been charged with molesting a 6-year-old 
boy at a playground just across the river in Detroit Lakes, MN. He 
appeared in court on April 5, 2005. A county judge set the bail at 
$15,000 and Duncan was released after paying the cash. A friend 
apparently posted the cash for him.
  The next I heard of this man was July 2. He was arrested in Idaho for 
kidnaping 8-year-old Shasta Groene and her 9-year-old brother Dylan 
Groene. The children had been missing since May 16 when the bound and 
bludgeoned bodies of their mother, older brother, and mother's 
boyfriend were found at their rural home. This case is another tragic 
reminder of the urgent need. Duncan has now been charged with abducting 
and molesting this young girl, three counts of first-degree murder.
  These predators, in many cases, are not strangers. We know who they 
are. They have been in prison. They have violently molested, violently 
sexually assaulted other people. I am not necessarily suggesting we put 
them in prison and throw away the key, but I am saying when we know 
someone is a violent sexual predator and they are about to be released 
from prison and the psychiatrists tell us they are at high risk for 
reoffending and recommitting another violent sexual act, then it seems 
to me the local people ought to be notified to determine whether the 
State's attorney wishes to recommit them for a civil commitment to 
protect society at large. And, second, if that person is released, it 
cannot any longer be ``so long and good luck,'' with nothing much more 
than a wave. We cannot do that. There must be a high level of 
monitoring.
  Kids are dying. People are being murdered. We have not had a national 
registry of sex offenders that is complete and that works. We let 
people out of prison who we know are going to offend again, or at least 
we know will offend again, and we let these people out of prison with 
virtually no monitoring at all by the Government.
  Again, isn't it interesting, Martha Stewart--and, incidentally, I 
don't even watch her television show, but she sure got a lot of press 
for going to prison. Martha Stewart goes to prison, and when she is let 
out, she is walking around with an electronic ankle bracelet. Yet these 
people are going to prison and they come out after having been guilty 
of violent sex offenses, they are judged to be at risk for committing 
another sexual offense, and they do not wear any electronic bracelet, 
any electronic monitoring device. It is ``so long, see you later.''
  That has to change. That is what Senator Hatch and Senator Biden say 
in their bill. It is what I say in Dru's Law. And it is long past the 
time for the majority leader to schedule this for a debate in the 
Senate.
  Last October, this Hatch-Biden bill was passed by the Senate 
Judiciary Committee. This is bipartisan. It has strong support in the 
Senate. There is no longer any excuse for that not to come to the 
Senate and to be debated and passed. Will it take the next vicious 
murder, the next brutal murder of some young child, to understand that 
violent sexual predators exist and are being let out of prison with 
little monitoring? I hope not. I hope before we have the next set of 
headlines the majority leader will decide this represents a priority, a 
priority far higher than some of the other priorities he has suggested 
for floor action, and that we can see in the Senate very soon the 
legislation offered by Senator Hatch and Senator Biden.
  I commend them for the legislation they have written. I appreciate 
the fact that title II is Dru's Law. I have worked with them, as have 
many of my colleagues. They have done this country a great service by 
putting S. 1086 together. Now the majority leader can do this country a 
great service by scheduling the Senate's consideration of this bill, 
after these many months following its favorable reporting from the 
Senate Judiciary Committee.
  I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. BURNS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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