|
CONGRESS PASSES BILL TO STOP
EARLY RELEASE OF HARD-CORE CRIMINALS |
WASHINGTON, DC, July 12, 2000 "Aimee's Law," the landmark anti-crime legislation co-sponsored by Congressman Doug Ose (R-Sacramento), today passed the U.S. House of Representatives by an unanimous vote. The "No Second Chances for Murderers, Rapists, or Child Molesters Act" will crack down on lax incarceration practices that result in short prison sentences and serious criminals repeating crimes on innocent victims.
"The most important role of government is to protect its citizens, Aimee's Law encourages states to do just that," Ose said.
"There is no excuse for the release of violent predators back into society. This act will keep murders, rapists, and child molesters off our streets."
|
"Aimee's Law" encourages states to keep murderers, rapists, and child molesters behind bars, and holds them (the state) financially accountable if they fail to do so. Under the Act, if a state releases a murderer, rapist, or child molester and that criminal later commits one of those crimes in a second state, the first state - using a share of its federal crime-fighting funds - will compensate the second state the cost of prosecuting and incarcerating the criminal.
According to the Justice Department, the average time served by men released from state prisons for rape is 5 1⁄2 years. For molesting a child, it is only 4 years; for murder, it is just 8 years. Every year, 14,000 murders, rapes and sexual assaults are committed by violent, repeat murderers and sex offenders.
The bill is named after Aimee Willard, a 22 year-old star athlete at George Mason University who was raped and murdered in Pennsylvania by a killer released from prison in Nevada.
|
|