Wednesday • April 5, 1995
STATE
The Battalion • Page 9
Senate OKs final three of 14 ‘Ashley’s Laws’
□ The State Senate unanimously
approved three more bills to get
tough on sex offenders.
AUSTIN (AP) — The Texas Senate on
Tuesday unanimously approved three more
bills to get tough on sex offenders and child
molesters, completing passage of 14 mea
sures known as “Ashley’s Laws.”
Those bills, now pending before the House,
include a “three strikes and you’re out” sen
tence, public notification when sex offenders
are released and creation of child safety zones
at parks, schools and other locations.
They are named for 7-year-old Ashley Es-
tell of Dallas, who was abducted from a
Plano park, molested and killed in 1993 by a
paroled sex offender who had served 18
months of a 10-year prison sentence.
“We have set public policy that’s going to
say children are important to us in Texas,”
said Sen. Florence Shapiro, R-Plano, the
bills’ sponsor.
“If you commit a crime against one of our
children, you will pay a special price. We
will have special laws that will deal with
you,” she said.
Approved Tuesday were bills to:
— Create an automatic sentence of 40
years without possibility of parole for third-
time offenders convicted of a first-degree
felony sex offense against a child. The sen
tence would require two prior felony convic
tions, one of which must be for a sex offense
against a child.
The measure also would require a favor
able psychiatric evaluation and a two-thirds
vote of the full Board of Pardons and Paroles
for a convict to obtain parole.
— Establish child safety zones by requir
ing sentencing judges to bar sex offenders
from participating in programs that include
children and going near areas where chil
dren gather, including schools, parks and
swimming pools.
This bill also would require the sentence
of community supervision for a sex offense
be raised to a minimum of five years.
— Require public notification when a sex
offender is released back into a community,
including publishing of notice in a local
newspaper.
The bill also would require courts or pris
ons to register convicted sex offenders before
their release and require registration of of
fenders who move to Texas from other states.
“The mentality that we’ve had with child
molesters is let them come back into the
community and let them continue to do their
dastardly deeds. What we have finally said
is no more. This is not going to happen
again,” Ms. Shapiro said.
She said she wasn’t worried that public
notification might cause harassment of con
victed offenders.
“I am more concerned today about the
safeguards for the citizens, about the com
munity, about the empowerment of the com
munity. For the first time I believe we are
looking at elevating the rights of the law-
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"If you commit a crime against
one of our children^ you will
pay a special price."
— Sen. Florence Shapiro
R-Plano, the bills’ sponsor
abiding citizens and the victims above the
rights of the criminals,” she said.
If the House approves the 14 bills and
Gov. George W. Bush signs them into law,
Ms. Shapiro said Texas would have the na
tion’s toughest laws regarding sex offenders.
In other action Tuesday, the Senate
adopted revisions to the state’s penal code
that would increase punishment for those
convicted of non-violent “state jail” felonies.
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