Don't blink, or you'll miss the parade.
No sooner did Georgia lawmakers pass what is certainly one of the toughest anti-sex offender laws in the nation than along comes South Carolina proposing even tougher legislation.
The bill approved shortly before Georgia's General Assembly adjourned earlier this month significantly increases mandatory sentencing - in some cases up to 25 years - for most sex crimes, especially against children, and calls for lifetime electronic monitoring of the most dangerous predators after they're released.
A bill still working its way through the Palmetto State legislature also requires harsher sentences for sex crimes and electronic monitoring. But that's not all.
For predators twice convicted of sexually assaulting children younger than 11, South Carolina would allow prosecutors to go for the death penalty. This would make it only the nation's second state to permit capital punishment for a crime other than premeditated murder. The other is Louisiana, which also allows the death penalty for violent sex crimes against young children.
The Carolina measure, approved by the state Senate and now in the House, has the blessing of Gov. Mark Sanford and state Attorney General Henry McMaster. Such sex crimes against young children deserve the maximum penalty, says the governor, because they can ruin a young person's life.
The clampdown on sex predators is due to some high-profile sexual assault cases across the nation and the fact that sex predators have such a high rate of recidivism. The best way to stop them, and protect the innocent, is to separate them from society.
Although tough sentencing standards enjoy wide public support, not all prosecutors agree. Aiken County Solicitor Barbara Morgan opposes her state's bill because, she says, it takes away prosecutors' and judges' discretion, pushing defendants, who might otherwise enter into a plea agreement, to go to trial because they have nothing to lose. That would be costly to taxpayers and, more importantly, it risks not guilty verdicts in tough-to-prove cases.
Morgan has a point, but Augusta District Attorney Danny Craig has a better one. He acknowledges there'll be fewer guilty pleas, but he says in the long run tougher standards should still reduce sex crimes and better protect women and children. If they do not, the laws can always be revisited.
The best deterrent is to simply keep sex predators away from victims for as long as possible. So don't give up on harsher penalties before trying them.
