Sex offender registry; removal of name and information. (HB552)

Introduced By

Del. Morgan Griffith (R-Salem)

Progress

Introduced
Passed Committee
Passed House
Passed Senate
Signed by Governor
Became Law

Description

Removal of name and information from sex offender registry. Provides that any person required to register, other than a person who has been convicted of any (i) sexually violent offense, (ii) two or more offenses for which registration is required, (iii) a violation of former 18.2-67.2:1, or (iv) murder, may petition the circuit court for removal of his name and all identifying information from the sex offender registry on or after July 1, 2008, whose offense requiring registration was committed before July 1, 1994 (inception of the registry). Currently such a person may not be on file for such removal earlier than 10 years after the date of initial registration. Read the Bill »

Outcome

Bill Has Failed

History

DateAction
01/07/2008Committee
01/07/2008Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/09/08 084583520
01/07/2008Referred to Committee on General Laws
01/22/2008Referred from General Laws
01/22/2008Referred to Committee on Militia, Police and Public Safety
01/29/2008Impact statement from DPB (HB552)
02/12/2008Left in Militia, Police and Public Safety

Comments

Dave writes:

Virginia desperately needs to go to a risk-based system of assessing who needs to be on the list.

It is my understanding that Virginia, in its last round of legislation, went the way of other states, such as Oklahoma in reclassifying the majority of its sex offenders as violent, whether their crimes included actual violence (or sex, for that matter) or not.

All such offenders would be forever excluding from being removed from the registry, no matter how old the offense, or how strong the evidence of rehabilitation. That is wrong.

JW Morrison writes:

Given the provisions set forth, this is a good bill. It allows those who have not recidivated for over 14 years and who have not committed what are considered violent offenses to actually be part of society.