[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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