‘Andrea’s Law’ would track released murderers

Proposing a bill he called “Andrea’s Law,” after slain Batavia college student Andrea Will, Elmhurst Republican state Rep. Dennis Reboletti has filed legislation to create a registry for first-degree murderers.

Modeled on similar registries for sex offenders and child abusers, it would require those convicted of first-degree murder to register with local authorities for 10 years after their release from prison and create an online database for citizens.

The bill was prompted by the release of Justin Boulay last November after he served 12 years of a 24-year sentence for the first-degree murder of his ex-girlfriend Will at Eastern Illinois University in downstate Charleston in 1998. He was found to have lured Will to his apartment with the promise of a birthday gift and strangled her with a telephone cord.

“This is a case, I believe, of justice delayed, but not denied,” said Reboletti, who was backed by Will’s mother, Patricia Rosenberg, of Batavia, and college roommate, Michelle Felde, of Arlington Heights, in making the announcement Tuesday at the Thompson Center in Chicago.

“It is my belief that the public has a right to know when a convicted murderer, particularly one with a history of being a domestic abuser, is going to live near their homes, in their neighborhoods, and near their college campuses,” Felde said. “I believe that this bill, ‘Andrea’s Law,’ will go a long way in making our communities and state a safer place to be. The public deserves to know.”

“We all have a right to know if that murderer is living in our neighborhood or right next door,” Rosenberg said. “I was not able to protect my child from what happened to her, but this bill may help to protect someone else.”

Reboletti added that, for now, it was in part intended to correct inequities in murder sentences. Boulay committed the crime in 1998 before truth-in-sentencing laws took effect that ended the policy of “day-for-day time” that permitted him to get out on good behavior after serving just half his sentence. Since then, convicted murderers have been subject to mandatory sentences with no possibility of parole.

Reboletti said he felt “anger and frustration,” when he heard about Boulay’s parole in November, “and disappointment that the system had let Andrea down and her family down and her friends down.”

Boulay is now living in Hawaii with his wife, whom he married while in prison. Reboletti said Hawaii too is now considering a murderer registry, although a less-restrictive one that would require registration only while the released prisoner is still on parole.

Both Rosenberg and Felde, who fought back tears at the news conference, said to their minds the new law was as much about finding a way to extend Boulay’s punishment as it was the public safety.

“For me, it is an absolute extension,” Rosenberg said, “something that should have been there in the first place,” adding, “to have an additional 10 years of knowing where he is, because he’s not in prison, would make a big difference.”

“I think it’s both,” Felde added. “I would want to know if my next-door neighbor had committed a murder, whether it was Justin Boulay or not.”

Both emphasized that they were not permitted to give victim-impact statements at Boulay’s original sentence hearing, and that there was no parole-board hearing before his release.

Reboletti said the law would apply to all newly paroled prisoners convicted of first-degree murder and those already out on parole, and that others within 10 years of their release would be added as they came to notice through other brushes with the law. It would also apply to released murderers from other states who had their paroles transferred to Illinois. He added that it would be enforced, like the sex-offender and child-abuse registries, with a felony imposed on those who failed to register, with a possible sentence of one to three years.

“I think it’s going to serve as a deterrent,” Reboletti added. “It’s going to serve as a watchful eye over these individuals, so they’re not going to be able to just sneak back in the community and rebegin their lives.”