State House News Service 
By Michael P. Norton

AUG. 25, 1999--A leading House lawmaker today said he is "not optimistic" that Beacon Hill negotiators can hammer out a
solution that addresses judicial concerns over the appellate rights of sex offenders.

Massachusetts stands to lose $1.2 million in federal money by Sept. 12, and eventually more than $10 million, if it can't fix its sex offender registry law, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Rep. Paul Haley said today. Aside from the money, the logjam means the registry, intended to safeguard residents and children against sex offenders, remains tied up in red tape.

If the state can't create a functional and legal registry system, the money is at "serious risk," said Haley (D-Weymouth).  And recent Supreme Judicial Court decisions favoring appellate rights of sex offenders have made it more difficult for legislators to fashion a bona-fide registry system.

The most recent SJC decision, issued earlier this month, suggests that every alleged sex offender must have a hearing to determine whether he or she must register.  Because the current registry law applies to all offenses committed since 1981, there's a possibility that thousands of hearings would be required to make sure the due process rights of alleged offenders are not violated.

Critics of the SJC's decision say the cost of hearings, and likely delays, threaten the usefulness and viability of the registry.  The latest ruling, said Haley, confounds the conferees.  "The courts really set us reeling with that last decision," said Haley, a former prosecutor.  "That decision set us back to square one.  It's frustrating because we've been working on this for three years."

Haley said lawmakers are particularly frustrated because the high court, in a previous opinion that anxious lawmakers requested, had not suggested that every sex offender have a hearing before being registered.  "That may be something that we are not able to fix," said Haley.

Previously, the SJC has ruled that sex offenders are also entitled to hearings to challenge their categorization.   The law calls for various categorizations, depending on the offender's crimes. 

Stephen T. Saloom, executive director of the Criminal Justice Policy Coalition, which supports humane criminal justice policies, said the Massachusetts registry law is too broad, reaching back to offenses that have occurred since 1981 and unwisely requiring minor offenders to register.  Connecticut, New Hampshire, New York and Maine have prospective registry laws that do not require sex offenders to register if they committed their offenses before the registry law passed.

Saloom said the corrective sex offender bill is "like an octopus" because it includes language to fix the registry along with two additional major provisions requiring lifetime parole for offenders and a civil commitment provision to keep sex offenders in jail after their sentences expire. The added layers of complexity make it more difficult to reconcile the House and Senate bills. 

In March, Gov. Paul Cellucci, saying rehabilitation of sex offenders "rarely works," urged lawmakers to fix the Registry to protect the public. "It seems like every time we turn around, there is another terrible instance of one of these monsters molesting a child, raping a woman or spreading terror throughout a community," Cellucci told the Criminal Justice Committee then.

Conferees charged with fixing the registry's problems include Reps. Haley, Stephen Tobin (D-Quincy) and Kevin Finnegan (R-Newburyport).  The Senate conferees are Sens. Robert Bernstein (D-Worcester), Cynthia Creem (D-Newton) and Michael Knapik (R-Westfield). 

The House approved its version of the bill by a 141-6 vote on June 2.  The Senate voted 39-0 to pass its sex offender bill on July 1.  It was referred to the conference committee on July 8.