Sex offenders from away

A convicted sex offender form North Carolina did Maine a favor recently by unintentionally pointing out a flaw in state statute regarding his crime. State lawmakers can and should swiftly submit legislation to close the loophole in the law.

Howard Brooks, formerly of Forsyth County, N.C., emerged from prison in 1997 after serving four years for taking indecent liberties with a child. As sex offenders must in North Carolina, Maine and most places, he registered with the county sheriff’s department upon his release. Not many months later, the sheriff lost track of him. Where was he? He was in Maine, to which the North Carolina registration law understandably does not extend and where the state law fails to cover offenders from away.

All of this came to light because the state of North Carolina accused Mr. Brooks of breaking the law by failing to tell the sheriff he was bound for Vacationland. A judge last week disagreed, saying the state lacked the power to require a person not within its jurisdiction to perform an affirmative act, that being registering a change of address with the Forsyth County Sheriff. A sensible ruling, but one that should signal to Maine lawmakers to get busy — unless they prefer the final word to be a court case revealing Maine to be the place for out-of-state sex offenders who prefer not to register.

Many states already require sex offenders convicted in other states but residing within their borders to register. Iowa’s law, for instance, looks similar to Maine’s, but includes that its registration instructions may apply to residents with “convictions from other jurisdictions such as other states and/or federal convictions.” California, which has been registering sex offenders since 1947, is even more specific. It states, “Sex offenders convicted in federal or military courts or other states for certain sex offenses are also required to register within five days of entering California.”

Maine’s law does not specifically limit itself to those convicted here, but it doesn’t require those from out of state to register either.

The networking of law-enforcement computers will make much of this considerably easier in the near future, although it will still require states to write laws that cover the peripatetic. Mr. Brooks last week highlighted just such a shortcoming in Maine’s law.