[Vision2020] Place your anger properly

[Andreas Schou]

>  · Steven Sitler, #79278 was not designated as a violent sexual predator."
>
>  http://www2.state.id.us/socb/Meetings/Jan13%2006.pdf
>
>  The question that should be asked is why he was not. This is where my anger
> is, not with what school, household, church, grocery store, movie theater,
> or basket ball court Steven Sitler attended.

Donovan --

There are standards for classifying sex offenders. Not all sex
offenders fall into the category of "violent sexual predator"; in
fact, few do. Treatment standards and outcomes recommendations are
different for violent sexual predators and other, more opportunisitc,
sex offenders. The reason for classifying sex offenders differently is
to make distinctions between them.

While I am sympathetic to the idea that, if punishments were more
severe, there wouldn't be as much a need for community treatment, that
is not, in fact, how our justice system works. Classification is a
necessary part of the process.

-- ACS

* There is a certain amount of "killing the messenger" involved in
everyone's treatment of the sheriff's department and the prosecutor's
office. I don't want to let the prosecutor and law enforcement off the
hook entirely, or even partially, but -- from what I see in front of
me -- there are evidentiary problems with what could be considered
priveleged communications between Sitler and his pastors, the victims
are largely too young to testify, and there do not appear to have been
any direct witnesses. With all of those in place, this could
potentially have been a difficult case to win.

The standard that the prosecutor's office has to meet is "beyond a
reasonable doubt." This doesn't mean "50% in one person's mind", it
means "100% in twelve people's minds." In this case, where I'm not
sure what evidence would be available to be presented and who would be
available to testify, I'm not certain that I would trade a 100% chance
at a short sentence and community supervision for a 25% chance for a
long sentence.

Plus, Idaho's sex crimes laws are an enormous, archaic mess, and they
need to be reformed.