Crime legislation continues to be a focus as budget is debated

Crime legislation is high on the state Legislature’s agenda this year but there’s worry that the focus on Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s state budget, with its sharp cuts, will preoccupy legislators.

Ironically, the budget may wind up sidelining Dunleavy’s own criminal reform agenda for the year.

Public safety is a high priority for the governor and he has introduced several bills to toughen prison sentencing, including some that were eased when the Legislature passed a reform bill, Senate Bill 91, in 2016.

However, one narrowly-focused bill dealing with a loophole in sex crime statutes, is considered likely to get through the logjam that will develop on budget issues. That is Senate Bill 12, sponsored by state Sen. Peter Micciche, R-Kenai, that closes the “Schneider Loophole,” a weakness in Alaska’s criminal code that allowed a violent sexual predator to walk free without jail time last September.

“The result of Justin Schneider (the offender) walking free garnered national attention as Alaskans stood by in disbelief that such a free pass could occur after Justin Schneider brutally strangled a woman to the point of unconsciousness and then ejaculated on her,” Micciche said.

Sen. Shelly Hughes, R-Mat-Su, is a cosponsor of SB 12.

SB 12 has had several hearings in the Senate Judiciary Committee, which Hughes chairs. One of Dunleavy’s crime bills, SB 35, also tightens laws on sex offenses and has been active in the Judiciary committee.

That bill, one of several the governor has introduced, may also pass this year. “Many are eager to get these bills passed but we need to do it right,” said Hughes in a briefing last Thursday, Feb. 27.

Sen. Mike Shower, R-Mat-Su, agreed with Hughes. “I want to move fast and get this (crime reform) done, but I also want to do it right,” Shower said at the briefing.

Previous efforts at criminal justice reform, such as Senate Bill 91, which passed the Legislature in 2016, focused on several aspects of reform, particularly rehabilitation of offenders and strengthening laws dealing with major crimes. But it left weaknesses in statutes dealing with sex crimes, which Dunlevy and legislators want addressed.

SB 35 bumps up penalties for sexual crimes and for possessing and distributing child pornograhy. It also makes it illegal to solicit sex with a minor regardless of the form of communication. Current law refers only to communication with a minor with a computer, a narrow definition.

It also allows all of an offender’s felony conviction history, both sexual and non-sexual, to be considered by a judge in sentencing.

SB 12, on the Schneider case, strengthens the law in several ways, the Micciche said.

“It will classify unwanted contact with semen as a sexual crime, which means perpetrators can be required to register as sex offenders for this crime,” he said.

“It will also require that strangulation to the point of unconsciousness (which happened in the Schneider case) is defined as assault in the first degree, which carries a sentence of five to 20 years. It would (also) eliminate credit toward time served for electronic monitoring.

“In recent years, one outrageous story after another about criminals getting a slap on the wrist has dominated our headlines,” Micciche said.

“The case of Justin Schneider forces us to confront just how badly our criminal justice system has been failing victims and survivors of sexual assault,” he said.

Micciche said there seems to be broad bipartisan support for fixing the loophole. “I’ve heard of no one opposing this,” he said.

Hughes said: “It’s important for us to give police and prosecutors the tools they need, and to give judges the discretion they need.

It is an outrage that Alaska’s rate of sexual offenses is twice the national average. “One third of the women in our state have been affected by sexual assault and there are estimates of 7,000 assaults a year. Only about 20 percent of these are even reported,” Hughes said.

“Why are they not being reported? We’ve heard (in public testimony in hearings) that until the laws are properly structured, women (and male victims) are reluctant to come forward,” she said.