Lawmakers rejected a series of sex crime measures this year ranging from eliminating good-behavior credits to requiring child pornographers to register with the state?s sex offender database.
Advocates for sex abuse victims also lamented the death of bills that would eliminate paternity rights for rapists.
“There have been some successes, but there have been some serious disappointments,” said Lisae Jordan, an attorney with the Maryland Coalition Against Sexual Assault. “It?s been very disappointing they haven?t acted on many of the bills that would do more for rape victims.”
With the General Assembly session approaching the last of its 90 days, lawmakers backing sex offense measures worked furiously to move their proposals ahead.
A House committee earlier this week heard testimony on a bill sponsored by Sen. Bryan Simonaire, an Anne Arundel Republican, increasing the mandatory minimum sentence for repeat child rapists from 10 to 25 years.
The bill, whichpassed in the Senate, corrects a loophole in the 2007 Jessica?s Law, which set a mandatory 25-year minimum sentence, with no possibility of parole, for a first-degree child rape conviction.
“This bill is about consistency,” Simonaire said. “Obviously it?s not the intent of the legislature to give repeat offenders the same or less penalty as a first time offender.”
As Del. Donna Stifler ? a Harford County Republican ? scrambled to advance her bill requiring updated photos on Maryland?s sex offender registry every six months, Sen. Nancy Jacobs had all but given up on her proposal to make registration requirements retroactive to October 1995.
“Outlook not good, outcome not good,” said Jacobs, a Harford County Republican.
All is not lost, advocates said. Both chambers cleared legislation requiring sex offenders to register nicknames and online aliases.
