Sex Offender Bill

In Oklahoma City on February 11, 2003 a measure that would prohibit sex offenders from living within a mile of any school got an easy backing from a state legislative panel. But the House Criminal Justice Committee balked at a bill to make consensual sex the crime of rape if it occurs between a minor 16 or 17 and an adult 25 or older. House Bill 1501 by Rep. Kevin Cox, D-Oklahoma City, would forbid any registered sex offender from establishing …showed first 75 words of 518 total…

…showed last 75 words of 518 total…annual cost of $17,000 to house, clothe and feed a convict and provide him with medical care, that amounts to an overall average cost of $272,000 to imprison a rapist. Braddock suggested the Legislature revisit the statutory rape question when the economic outlook is brighter, and apparently a majority of the Criminal Justice Committee concurred. A motion to “report progress” on HB 1045 – shelve the bill but not kill it or advance it – passed on a 4-3 vote.