Chelsea King Parents Help Pass Sex Offender Law

(CBS)  Chelsea King was a beautiful and talented high school student whose life was brutally cut short by a convicted sex offender.

Less than seven months after the San Diego 17-year-old was raped and murdered while jogging near her home, California is taking steps to ensure it never happens again, with a new law aimed at making sure other predators are locked up for good.

CBS News correspondent Betty Nguyen reports that on Thursday, California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed "Chelsea's Law," and vowed to keep the most dangerous sexual offenders behind bars for life.

Schwarzenegger said, "Because of Chelsea, California's children will be safer, because of Chelsea this never has to happen again."

CBS News Legal Analyst Lisa Bloom remarked, "This could be considered a one-strike law for violent sexual predators. Judges in California will now have the power to impose a life sentence without the possibility of parole on someone with just one conviction for the sexual assault of a child."

John Gardner confessed to the attack on Chelsea, and also led authorities to the body of 14-year-old Amber Dubois, who was missing since 2009.

Gardner had been imprisoned a decade ago for molesting his 13-year-old neighbor, but served only five years, despite a psychiatrist's warning that he was still a dangerous predator. This revelation outraged Chelsea's community.

Brent King, Chelsea's father, said in May, "I am filled with a rage I did not think I could possess against this man. I hate him with all my soul."

Bloom pointed out, "The idea behind this law is to save lives, to track predators, to keep them in prison, in some cases for life, in order to save the lives of other potential young victims."

Chelsea's mom thanked the governor directly.

Kelly King said, "You've helped us fulfill our dream of doing everything in our power to prevent this tragedy from ever happening to another family again."

This new law will also toughen other penalties for child molesters, including requiring lifetime parole and GPS monitoring for more serious offenders.

On Friday, Brent and Kelly King and Republican California Assemblyman Nathan Fletcher, who led the "Chelsea's Law" effort, appeared on "The Early Show" broadcast.

Brent said, "Yesterday was a very good day in California."

Kelly added, "As a parent, there was no other choice than to say, 'enough is enough.' This has happened too many times to too many beautiful, innocent young children. And it's got to stop."

Brent said the law brings hope to other families.

He said, "It brings some peace to other families, that they shouldn't have to go through what we went through. And that brings some peace to Kelly and I, that we're helping the community as much as we can. And that brings us some healing."

Fletcher said he was drawn to the Kings' case because of the public safety issue.

He said, "When you look at what happened and you look at the terrible tragedy that in so many cases was preventable, and you recognize that public safety is the critical responsibility of government, it's the most important thing it does is protection of the children, protection of the innocent, to see the failure and know that out of this tragedy everyone felt an obligation to try to do something, to, as Brent said, ensure that future families don't have to go through what they're going through. It really was the spirit of Chelsea and the bravery and dedication of Brent and Kelly that got us to yesterday, which is a really good day in California."

So how did the law pass so quickly?

"Early Show" anchor Harry Smith pointed out laws usually take years to pass.

Fletcher replied, "Well, that was one of the things when we started, I was kind of being realistic and I told Brent and Kelly, 'Hey, these things take years.' Sometimes they go to an initiative of the people, but there was an amazing team of supporters that came together. There were tens of thousands of community leaders, parents, law enforcement groups, crime victims groups, but most importantly, the most powerful story of an amazing woman, Chelsea King, that led to us the effort, for what we started, what was the unthinkable: that in a few short months pass one of the most sweeping public safety measures in California. And I think it's a great tribute and legacy to the power of Chelsea King and to the dedication of Brent and Kelly, who chose to say, 'We're going to do everything we can to make California a better place."

If the law had been in place, Kelly said her daughter would have been around.

She said, "In my heart of hearts, I believe we would not be sitting here (talking about her death.)"

Brent added, "As long as we had a tough judge who would enforce it, we wouldn't be sitting here."

Smith added the family has moved to Chicago since Chelsea's death.

Smith told the Kings, "I think there will be parents in the future who will be able to thank you for your efforts to make the change in this law in California. And I know people in other states are starting to talk about it, too."

[matthewhobbs]

More laws. Really do people think this will stop the rape and the murders????????????? First the first concern should be is to educate all young children and young adults to not talk to strangers, to report ANYTHING that feels wrong to them to their parents. Parents think this will never happen to us. IT DOES AND WILL. Then it is too late. Anyone that rapes and murders a child should never be released. However these laws target all sex offenders and their families, and that is unfair. This country has 700,000 registered offenders and their families. It is like a setting off an atom bomb. How long before these people say "the hell with it?" Before you know it their will be more offenders on the registry, then there are off.

[Daniel_Forrest]

As stated in the article--CBS News Legal Analyst Lisa Bloom remarked, "This could be considered a one-strike law for violent sexual predators. Judges in California will now have the power to impose a life sentence without the possibility of parole on someone with just one conviction for the sexual assault of a child."

Okay even though this is not exactly the same thing as civil commitment it still will work the same. Other parts of the article stated that if we had this law to begin with then Chelsea would still be alive. That sounds really good but it is not likely.

Assuming what was meant was that if we had this law already in place then all of the present day sex offenders who were on the registry would be locked up for life already. Come on people, use some common sense. This would have bankrupted the state years ago.

Lets look at some facts.

Prentky and Burges (2001) noted that housing and treatment average from 8 states is $91,000 a year per offender. It doesn't include legal expenses and would likely run $100,000. The cost to illinois is predicted to be $1,007,719,300 over ten years. (Journal of Sexual Offender Civil Commitment, P 146)

Maybe an emphasis on treatment and prevention would be a better approach.

[Keith_Richard_Radford_Jr]

you can't expect the truth from these online comments because they are censored and the public is being lied too by the media. CBS you just keep lying to the nation, you worthless trash, and where did Keith Richard Radford Jr's comment go!

[triptechb]

i must say i'm rather disturbed by all the comments against sex crime laws. ***? we are not talking about a 16 year old girl and an 18 year old boy having consensual sex. if you are getting labeled a sex offender for that reason you were apparently too stupid to defend yourself or too broke to get a lawyer.
i served 2 years in prison for drug possession and met many a sex offender, guess what? every one of them belonged there.
if you meet or know a convicted sex offender and they try to give you some story about how "it wasn't like that..." ask to see their court transcripts and see how fast they want to talk about something else.
if you have been convicted of a sex crime, and i'm not speaking of the wrongly accused- i'm speaking about the ones who try to say what they did was not wrong- you are more than deserving of the label "sex offender"

[RWVNRAL]

Finally! Once, and for all time...California has passed legislation that will prevent additional sex crimes. Right. Let us watch and see.

According to the federal Bureau of Justice Statistics, 93% of sexual crimes committed against children are perpetrated by people they know. That means that the people you REALLY ought to fear are: Daddy, Mommy, Uncle, Aunt, Brother, Sister, Grandpa, Grandma, the neighbor you invite to dinner all the time, and that really odd cousin who dresses up as Santa at Christmas.

[mjlewis6]

Another political law. Had the system worked to begin with, he would not have been FREE to commit such a crime. Also, had the system worked, he should have been given the proper training and work to insure a socially adaptable releasee instead of the state 'plea bargaining' a lower sentence, a lack of oversight on 'treatment and counseling and work"....so what does one expect for a sociopathic criminal?

The proper imposition of life or execution for murder still stands...what is clear is that the individual was a sociopath when he was released...so passing a law does not PREVENT the state from committing the same mistake again...RELEASING SOCIOPATHS who will kill again.

[Soulard1]

A MUST Read!

http://www.sosen.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=90:when-tragedy-strikes-and-beyond-&catid=21:editorials&Itemid=15

[quotelawrence]

the accuracy of reporting is very wrong when this story first was published I researched this guy he was not convicted of molestation he was convicted of Lewd & Lascivous acts with a child, in almost every case of sex crimes against children I notice a pattern that the reporting agency using the words Molest yet the crime that is commonly commited is Lewd & Lascivous this is very misleading as if you research Megan page on the web you will see Lewd & Lascivous and it has no mention of Molest and yet there is a crime "to Annoy or Molest" and it is a crime where people that have committed "indecent exposure", and making sexual comments to a child, if fact the Crime to Annoy or Molest doesn't have to have any contact these reporters which call every crime committed against a child from "A to Z" Molest are in fact ignoring the significants of Rape, Assault, they claim that the perpetrator or pedator was violent but the reality is the crime of Lewd & Lascivous is a violent crime it is rape, it is forced sexual contact, it is abuse but the reporting agencies are not being honest and they are calling every crime a Molest, do you hear this same term when a Woman is Raped or Murdered do they say whe was Molested No because the word Molest merely means to annoy Violence is Violence and Molest to Rape is Apples to Oranges. Call for accurate reporting.

[realreform]

All sex offender laws should only target truly violent sex offenders, such as younger child molesters (even without force), forcible rapists, kidnappers, and murderers, they are ALWAYS the ones who reoffend.

Currently a large proportion of "sex offenders" were nonviolent and did not hurt anyone at all. They have absolutely no victim whatsoever. These are the public urinators, streakers/flashers, peeping tom, 19 or 20 year old caught with a 16 or 17 year old consentually, chatting on the internet with someone posing as a minor, downloading a pic of a naked teen on kazaa or limewire, receiving a "sext" from your teen girlfriend, prostituting yourself or picking one up, having oral sex in any southern state which is an automatic felony and mandatory registerable, or any other sex crime where there was NO victim at all. This is your average sexual offender these days and they NEVER reoffend. They literally have about a ZERO percent recidivism rate.

There are currently almost a million sexual offenders, many of whom are no threat to anyone. The violent sexual offenders love this because they can hide out amongst them and slip through the cracks to strike again like Gardner.

We have completely watered down the sexual offenders registry and made it useless as a tool to gauge future danger of people. Many of these people are harmless and are jut trying to raise their family in peace and be a productive member of society. Now the registry is illegitimate and has no credibility. You all have angered 1 million sexual offenders families and friends into being against these laws that originally had good intentions. If the laws would just focus on the real bad people with a victim maybe everyone would support these laws.

Not even the millions of former murderers who are out of prison have to register their face on any online registry website or reregister every 3 months. Neither do former islamic terrorist attempted bombers like Najibullah Zazi or Faisal Shazhad, they will be free to walk the streets in peace when they get out, but some guy who was 20 and got caught with a 16 year old is stuck as a sex offender for life. Real justice. What a joke.

[tsigili]

Since when, did law matter?????

Criminals have committed murder, and been released in 3 yrs. 40 yr. sentences have actually only amounted to 6 yrs. served.

Our judicial system is a joke and a travesty, on justice.