National Sex Offender Registry Act of 2004

NATIONAL SEX OFFENDER REGISTRY ACT OF 2004

Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, last December, there were news reports around the country about the disappearance of a young student at the University of North Dakota whose name was Dru Sjodin.

I am sorry to tell you that Dru Sjodin has never been found. It is likely that she has been murdered. The person who allegedly committed that murder is now under lock and key in a North Dakota jail, awaiting a trial. And, as is too often the case, the man that apparently committed this crime had earlier been released from prison for committing similar offenses.

Let me talk for a moment about this case and about some legislation I have introduced in the Senate-bipartisan legislation-to respond to it.

Dru Sjodin was a student at the University of North Dakota. On a December afternoon, she was abducted in a parking lot at the shopping center in Grand Forks, ND.

The suspect who was arrested for that disappearance was a man named Alfonso Rodriguez, Jr. Law enforcement has released some details, saying that a knife with blood of the type of Dru Sjodin's blood was found in the automobile of Mr. Alfonso Rodriguez.

Mr. Rodriguez had only been released 6 months earlier from a 23-year sentence that he served in a prison for a previous rape and sexual assault in Minnesota. In fact, the Minnesota Department of Corrections had rated Mr. Rodriguez a "type 3" sexual offender, meaning that he was at the highest risk for reoffending.

In an evaluation conducted in January 2003, a little over a year ago, a prison psychiatrist wrote that Mr. Rodriguez had demonstrated "a willingness to use substantial force, including the use of a weapon, in order to gain compliance from his victims."

Yet Mr. Rodriguez was released in May of 2003-not yet a year ago-by the Minnesota Department of Corrections. He had served 23 years; he had served his full sentence, and the Department of Corrections released him and imposed no further supervision for his release.

The Minnesota Department of Corrections could have recommended that the State Attorney General seek what is known as a civil commitment. That means a State court would have required Rodriguez to be confined in prison as long as he posed a significant threat to the public, even if he had already served his original sentence. But the Attorney General was not notified of Mr. Rodriguez's release, and so no action was taken there.

Upon his release, Mr. Rodriguez went to live in Crookston, MN, unsupervised, just a short distance from the Grand Forks, ND, shopping mall where Dru Sjodin was abducted. Mr. Rodriguez was listed on a list of sexual predators in Minnesota. But each State has listings of sexual predators. If concerned citizens in Grand Forks, ND, wanted to know whether there was a sexual predator living nearby, they would have accessed the North Dakota sexual predator list and would not have found Mr. Rodriguez's name, despite the fact that he lived just a short distance from that Grand Forks shopping center, across the state line.
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In my judgment, we have to do much, much better than that. A recent study found that 72 percent of the highest risk sexual offenders commit another sexual assault within 6 years of being released. And the Bureau of Justice statistics tell us that sex offenders released from prison are over 10 times more likely to be arrested for a sexual crime than individuals who have no record of sexual assault at all.

We just cannot continue to release sexual predators from prison with no supervision whatsoever and let them prey on an unsuspecting public. So I have offered legislation that I hope will deal with some of the breakdowns that have occurred in this case. The legislation I have offered is cosponsored by Senator Coleman and Senator Dayton from Minnesota, and by my colleague, Senator Conrad, from North Dakota.

I ask unanimous consent to add as a cosponsor Senator Johnston from South Dakota.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, I will define what the bill does. First, it directs the Department of Justice to create a national registry of sex offenders, which would be accessible to the public. This isn't difficult. You just aggregate the State lists so you have a national list. All Americans who live near State borders will be able to access that list.

Second, this legislation will try to ensure that the highest risk sex offenders are not released at all. The bill requires that States provide automatic and timely notification to the States' attorneys of the planned release of any high-risk sex offender. Before the release, the State's attorney shall be formally notified. That will give them time to pursue civil commitment cases for those who are the most dangerous, in order to continue to keep them in prison. They are able to do that under current law. My bill doesn't change current State laws, but it requires notification of the States' attorneys when somebody who is a type 3 high-risk sexual predator is about to be released from prison.

Third, the bill provides that for those high-risk sexual predators who are released after serving their full sentences, there will be intensive State supervision for a period of not less than one year.

Mr. President, in developing this piece of legislation, we have worked with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, the Vanished Children's Alliance, the National Council of Cities, and many others. A companion bill to my legislation has been offered in the House by PAUL GILLMOR from Ohio and EARL POMEROY of North Dakota. That, too, is a bipartisan piece of legislation.

Dru Sjodin, was, by all accounts, a wonderful person. I visited with her family and with her roommate in college. It is a tragedy the likes of which we see very seldom in our part of the country. Dru Sjodin has been missing since December. They have had search parties, the National Guard has searched, and her family is still out searching even after the formal law enforcement search has discontinued.

This young woman walked out of a shopping center in the town of Grand Forks, ND, and was abducted by someone who had just been released after 23 years in prison as a sexual predator.

We have to do a lot better than that to protect the American people. This is a tragedy. It is heartbreaking just to talk about this, but in the name of Dru Sjodin and so many other victims of crime, this Congress needs to do better.

One way to do better is to create and require the creation of a national registry of sexual predators so that we know where they are and where they live, not just by State, but where they are across this country, so one can identify them by sorting ZIP Codes or any other definition one wants. That is important.

And when the highest risk sexual predators are about to be released from American prisons, I believe States' attorneys must be notified so they can properly take action for civil commitment in cases where they believe it is necessary. Mr. Rodriguez, in my judgment, should have been in prison, not walking the streets of Grand Forks, ND.

It is easy, perhaps, to suggest criticism of those who did not do their job. But that is not the point. The point is to try to protect others in the future. I hope in the future, whether it is in Grand Forks, ND, or along the streets of any other American city, that no one-no one-has to confront a sexual predator who was just released from prison, and who we knew was violent. We should anticipate such cases, and make use of civil commitment laws. I hope this legislation moves us in that direction.

Mr. President, I thank the bipartisan cosponsors of this legislation and hope we can take action on this legislation in the Congress soon.

I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.