The news story:
Not even a full day after police found the body of an 11-year-old girl who was kidnapped, authorities say, by a registered sex offender, the Salisbury tragedy was spotlighted by Maryland activists who consider the state’s child protection laws inadequate.
Jerry Norton, who heads Citizens for Jessica’s Law in Maryland, a group that for years has fought to fortify laws against pedophiles, was calling lawmakers Saturday, underscoring his position…
…Police said the girl had been taken from her bedroom Tuesday night by a registered sex offender, Thomas James Leggs Jr., who has been held since Wednesday in the abduction…
…Leggs, 30, is listed in the Maryland registry because of a third-degree sex offense conviction in 1998.
In Delaware, he is listed as a “high-risk” sex offender in connection with the rape of a minor in 2001.
I don’t know what, exactly, constitutes a “third-degree sex offense” but it is my opinion that if a person sexually violates another physically, that person should never, ever be allowed of prison. And even things like peeping Tom and flasher crimes should earn stiff, 10 and 20 year sentences. If this latest case doesn’t teach us, then nothing will but the plain fact of the matter is that once a person heads down the route of sexual assault, we can never trust them in public, again.
This doesn’t mean we must be harsh in our treatment of such people. This doesn’t mean such a person cannot gain redemption. But as we cannot peer in to the souls of others and given that we have massive evidence of recidivism among sexual offenders, we just can’t take the chance. And a sex offender who is truly contrite will also not want to be let out of prison – someone who has faced such a crime and left off making excuses about it realizes that the crime is monstrous and he’s lucky he wasn’t executed but was, instead, mercifully given a chance to gain forgiveness.
We have to get serious about this. Without an ounce of vindictiveness in our hearts and, indeed, a level of mercy and love even towards the offenders, we must protect our women and children from such people.
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