• Home
• Buy Photos
• News
• Sports
• Opinion
• Video
• RPC Newspapers
• Citizen News
• Blogs
• Forums
• Services
• Forms
• Subscribe
• Autos
• Jobs
• Classifieds
• Legals

Should sex offenders get florescent license plates? Opponents, backers of bill proposed by Coughlin debate legislation before Senate committee

E-mail Story    |    Print Story    |    Comments    |   

by Marc Kovac

Capital Bureau Chief

Columbus -- Supporters of legislation that would require sex offenders to display florescent green license plates on their vehicles countered objections outlined by groups who believe the new law would lead to vigilantism and give children a false sense of security around strangers.

Senate Bill 56 has been titled Kristen's Law, after the Wooster-area youngster who was abducted by a sex offender and brutally raped and murdered.

"Had Mark and Sharon (Jackson) seen this green license plate, they would not have let Kristen out of their sight," Sheryl Rusher, a family friend, told members of the Senate's Judiciary-Criminal Justice Committee. "They would have kept their children close and probably would have moved. They wouldn't have gone out back and beat this man to a pulp as opponents would have you think."

Rusher joined Mark Jackson and others Nov. 7 in providing proponent testimony on the legislation, sponsored by Sen. Kevin Coughlin, R-Cuyahoga Falls.

SB 56 would target offenders and predators who are already required to register with county sheriff's offices, including those convicted of rape, sexual battery, gross sexual imposition, importuning and sex-related crimes involving children.

They would be required to display a florescent green license plate on their vehicles.

Opposition fears violence against drivers

Proponents believe the plate would serve as a deterrent to potential future offenders and would enable parents, children, law enforcement and others to monitor sexual offenders' activities.

But several individuals representing law enforcement groups are opposed to the legislation.

Clermont County Sheriff A.J. Rodenberg said the sheriffs he has talked to are against the proposal.

"I do not believe that placing green license plates on the vehicles of sex offenders is going to do anything to protect our community," he said.

Rodenberg said the plates would brand innocent family members, who would face public scorn when driving in vehicles displaying the green plates because of the deeds of someone else in their household.

"They should not be paying the penalty for the criminal that lives in their family," he said.

John Murphy, representing the Ohio Prosecuting Attorneys Association, agreed, adding that the plates could lead to acts of violence against sexual offenders.

"Our members are very concerned about the unintended consequence of vigilantism that might result from the passage of this bill," he said. "We have had similar instances of vigilante justice even with the current (sexual offender) registration law, and we feel that the license plate would expose these persons to a far greater likelihood of attack."

John Gilchrist, legislative counsel for the Ohio Association of Chiefs of Police (which also opposes the bill), said his group expected increased incidents of road rage if the green license plates are required.

"The association believes that some motorists, upon seeing the green plates of the roadway, will drive aggressively toward that vehicle -- from tail-gating to cutting them off to a variety of other actions that could cause an accident resulting in injury to other innocent motorists and their passengers," he said.

Supporters say plates 'can help a lot'

Through tears that started falling during her short walk to the hearing-room podium, Christina Haley recounted her friend Kristen Jackson's last day.

"I went to school with Kristen from kindergarten until the day she was killed," she said. "... I was with her that morning. .... We played in the band and we agreed to meet up later to walk around the fair."

Mark Jackson said he had no idea that Joel Yockey, who lived about 500 yards from his home, was a sexual offender.

In September 2002, Yockey abducted Jackson's daughter, raped and murdered her, then dismembered her body.

Under a plea agreement, Yockey was sentenced to life in prison without parole; he died earlier this year, reportedly of natural causes.

Had Yockey had a green license plate, like the one proposed in Coughlin's bill, "Kristen would have known to stay away from him and not get in his car and not trust this neighbor," Haley said. "The license plate will not prevent everything, but it can help a lot. It can make us all a lot more aware of our surroundings."

Proponents countered assertions that the legislation would lead to violence against sex offenders.

Haley noted that addresses of such individuals already are readily available to the public.

"Just because we have this information doesn't mean we vandalize or torment these people," she said. "We are good people and do not take the law into our own hands."

The testimony represented the third hearing on Senate Bill 56. Committee members have not yet acted on the bill.

Marc Kovac is the Dix Newspapers Capital Bureau chief. E-mail him at mkovac@dixcom.com. His Capital Blog can be found online at blogs.recordpub.com/capitalblog.