House OKs 4 Anti-Crime Bills, Including Sex Offender Notification

WASHINGTON —  States would have to inform the public when dangerous sex offenders are released from prison and move to their neighborhoods under a bill passed Tuesday night by the House.

The legislation was one of four separate anti-crime bills the House passed Tuesday. Lawmakers voted, 414 to 4, for a “two strikes and you’re out” measure to let federal prosecutors seek life sentences without parole for repeat offenders convicted of rape or serious sexual assault.

“It’s time we got tougher on the most violent, repeat sexual offenders,” said Rep. Louise M. Slaughter (D-N.Y.). The bill also toughens sentences for crimes against children, the elderly and the disabled.

A third bill, passed by voice vote, expands the reach of federal anti-stalking provisions to include strangers who cross state lines to injure or harass another person.

On another voice vote, the House passed a bill to increase the current 10-year maximum sentence for jury or witness tampering or retaliating against a witness. The new maximum sentence could be the same as that for whatever crime was being tried in the case.

The Clinton administration supports the sex offender bill, the anti-stalking bill and the jury and witness tampering legislation. It also supports enhancing penalties for crimes against children, the elderly and the disabled. But the White House has taken no position on mandating life sentences for a second conviction for violent sexual assault.

“Today we’re putting the rights of children above the rights of convicted sex offenders,” said Rep. Dick Zimmer (R-N.J.), the bill’s author.

“Sexual offenders are different,” said Rep. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.). “No matter what we do, the minute they get back on the street, many of them resume their hunt for victims, beginning a restless and unrelenting prowl for children, innocent children, to molest, abuse and in the worst cases, to kill.”

Rep. Melvin Watt (D-N.C.) raised a lonely voice in opposition.

“Our Constitution says to us that a criminal defendant is presumed innocent until he or she is proven guilty,” he said. “The underlying assumption of this bill is that once you have committed one crime of this kind, you are presumed guilty for the rest of your life.”

The anti-stalking bill sponsored by Rep. Ed Royce (R-Fullerton) closes a loophole in the 1994 crime law by making it a crime for anyone to cross state lines to injure or harass someone.

The law now applies only to stalking by current or former spouses or intimate partners. The new bill also makes restraining orders from one state valid in all.