Add a registry for convicted murderers
Would you want to know if a convicted murderer lives in your neighborhood?
We're betting most people would, and we urge the General Assembly to move ahead with legislation to give residents access to such information under what would be the nation's first murderers registry.
“Andrea's Law” won overwhelming approval in the House last week by a 97-1 vote, and it could go to the Senate for consideration before the end of May.
Named after Batavia's Andrea Will, who was strangled to death by her boyfriend when they were students at Eastern Illinois University in 1998, the bill requires all people convicted of first-degree murder to register with Illinois State Police for 10 years after they leave prison.
The legislation was sparked when Will's ex-boyfriend, Justin Boulay, was released from prison last year after serving 12 years of a 24-year sentence.
The bill's sponsor, State Rep. Dennis Reboletti, an Elmhurst Republican, said up to 500 Illinoisans who are on parole and another 3,000 who will eventually be released from prison might have to register under this plan.
“The murder registry would allow not only law enforcement but also the community to know who resides here, who our family members are associating with and who our children are dating. We already track sex offenders, child murderers and arsonists, and the murder registry is a natural extension to the state's current registries,” Reboletti said last week.
The best known of those registries is for sex offenders. It was created in 1996 and includes convictions retroactive for 10 years.
There are 21,270 sex offenders on the list, including nearly 15,000 people convicted of sex crimes who are on the street.
Like that database, the murderers registry would be created by the state police and provide the name, residence address, place of employment, school attended and a photograph of anyone convicted of first-degree murder.
Boulay has since moved to Hawaii with his wife, and he will be on parole for three years and must undergo anger management. Due to his case, Hawaii legislators are also proposing a murderer registry.
The Illinois proposal has some opponents. State Rep. Monique Davis cast the lone “no” vote last week, saying she was concerned with stigmatizing former murderers who paid their debt to society and are out of prison.
We disagree. We believe the seriousness of first-degree murder warrants such action.
Our support comes with one caution: Reboletti has said the registry will have a “nominal” cost. That's important. Given the state's financial picture, creation of the new registry cannot add to the debt.