Citizens for Criminal Justice Reform – New Hampshire

By Chris Dornin  This article also appears in corrections.com.

Nine-year-old Jessica Lunsford was kidnapped from her Florida home, raped and buried alive in February 2005. Lawmakers filed the 82-page Jessica Lunsford Act in her memory on April 1. Gov. Jeb Bush signed the new law on May 2. That’s light speed for any legislature. It passed unanimously in both houses. The most draconian sex offender code in America at the time had a mandatory 25-year minimum sentence for any sex crime against a child under age 12. The bid was life without parole for perpetrators older than 17.

By Chris Dornin & Philip Horner

It is often said that hard cases make for bad law. But lawmakers feel huge pressure to do something when crimes arouse public indignation. This something is usually to enact ill-conceived laws. If your only tool is a hammer, everything starts to look like a nail. These feel-good laws are often well-meaning, but some politicians see an egregious crime as an opportunity to make political hay by sponsoring a bill named after the victim. Every year the New Hampshire Legislature is presented with several such bills. This year is no exception.

Maine police found two registered sex offenders shot to death in towns 25 miles apart and quickly zeroed in on a suspect, who fatally shot himself as investigators closed in.