Reprinted courtesy of The Benton Courier

LITTLE ROCK – Convicted sex offenders will face tougher sentences and stricter monitoring under two bills passed by the Legislature in a special session this week.

The bills, sponsored by Rep. Dawn Creekmore, D-East End, received final approval Thursday and await Gov. Mike Huckabee’s signature.

One bill would allow the state to use Global Positioning System devices to track sex offenders. Under the measure, doctors or anyone with the authority to prescribe medicine would be able to consult crime databases to determine if the patient is a sex offender before prescribing a drug for erectile dysfunction.

The legislation also requires sex offenders to re-register with police every six months and to update their personal information. The most violent sex offenders would be tracked by GPS devices for at least 10 years.

Creekmore has introduced two measures modeled after a Florida law passed last year and named to memorialize the death of a 9-year-old girl by a registered sex offender.

“I was very excited upon passage of both bills, but now I am ecstatic,” Creekmore said Thursday afternoon.

Since the bills’ passage, Creekmore said she’s heard of two cases in which people confessed to sex crimes to avoid the stricter penalties.

Commonly referred to as “Jessica’s law,” the Florida law imposes tougher penalties on child molesters and requires many of those released from prison to wear satellite tracking devices for the rest of their lives.

Creekmore’s bill to toughen sex offender penalties was approved by an 89-4 vote in the House on Wednesday and by 31-3 in the Senate on Thursday.

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The measure would create minimum penalties of 25 years to life in prison for sex offenders, and would apply in cases involving victims under the age of 14.

“A vote for this bill is a vote for all of the children of Arkansas who have either been raped or who may be raped,” Creekmore told House members. “It is also to say to those sex offenders who prefer our most precious asse t as their victims that there will be a consequence.”

Little Rock criminal defense lawyer Jeff Rosenzweig said Wednesday that both measures could likely be challenged as unconstitutional. The sentencing measure, Rosenzweig said, would take away the discretion courts and prosecutors have in sex offender cases.

“I think the state is buying itself a lot of problems with these bills,” Rosenzweig said.

Associated Press Writer Jill Zeman contributed to this story.

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