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Senator Don Benton News & Views
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Benton votes ‘no’ to reducing community supervision for child
molesters
Legislature approves bill Vancouver lawmaker calls ‘unthinkable’
April 25, 2009
OLYMPIA…Sen. Don Benton, R-Vancouver, today fought hard to stop
passage of
Engrossed Substitute Senate Bill 5288, a measure to end
supervision early for violent criminals, including those
convicted of molesting and assaulting children.
“The community corrections officer assigned to the convicted sex
offender accused of raping and murdering Alycia Nipp last
February in Clark County, visited my office this past week,”
Benton told his colleagues. “He said that if Alycia’s accused
killer hadn’t been under supervision, law enforcement might
never have found him and he might still be out there.”
“We can’t balance the budget on the backs of small children –
it’s unthinkable,” Benton said. “The reason people pay taxes is
for public safety, it’s their number one priority.”
The House of Representatives amended the bill to allow an early
end to supervision, in some cases by cutting the time in half,
for a long list of violent offenders – including those convicted
of crimes against children.
On a very narrow vote (26 to 23), the Senate concurred with the
House amendments, sending the measure to the governor.
“This bill adds insult to injury for me,” Benton said. “My bill
to impose a mandatory 25-year sentence for sexual assault of a
child and to make murder of a child automatically subject to the
death penalty was not considered. Now we’ve gone completely in
the opposite direction.”
Benton’s measure,
Senate Bill 6115, died in the Senate Human Services and
Corrections Committee without a public hearing.
“Alicia’s accused killer should never have had the opportunity
to commit this heinous crime,” Benton said. “He should have
still been in prison for his conviction of molesting a child,
but he was paroled several years short of his ten-year sentence.
And even though he was being electronically monitored, he is now
accused of taking the life of a child.
“This case alone should have been a reason to watch these
despicable offenders more carefully and for a longer period of
time. Instead, we have now shortened their supervision. This is
so very wrong.”
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Additional Contact: Penny
Drost (360) 786-7522 or
drost.penny@leg.wa.gov
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