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25 Media L. Notes 1 (1997-1998)

handle is hein.journals/mdilwnts25 and id is 1 raw text is: M]E]D11A ]LAW N (0)TIES Volume 25, Number 1 Newsletter of the Association for Education in journalism and Miss Communication Law Division Fall 1997 HEADNOTE ... Megan's Law sex offender lists pose quandary By Sandra Davidson sdnsii @digo.org w University ot Missouri 1997-98 Division Chair At the AEJMC convention on August 1, the Law Division held a luncheon celebrating freedom of information. Access to information is a subject dear to many of us members of the Law Division, of course. Generally, our default mode attitude seems to be that information collected by the gov- ernment should be a matter of public record. But privacy inter- ests must sometimes override access interests, and release of faulty data may not serve the public well. A controversy now surrounds release of lists of the names and addresses of convicted sex offend- ers. It combines questions of both law and ethics. Effective October 1997, federal law requires each state to have a version of Megan's Law in place or lose federal anti-crime money. The term Megan's law will appear as an entry in the upcom- ing edition of Webster's collegiate dictionary The law is named after Megan Kanka, a 7-year-old girl raped and strangled in New Jersey in July 1994 by a man who had two prior convictions for sexually assaulting young girls and who moved across the street from Megan. In June 1997, her killer, Jesse Tmunendequas, received a death sentence. The federal Megan's law requires a person convicted of violent sexual crimes to register a current address with local law enforcement agencies and to regis- ter a change of address within 10 days of moving into a new neigh- borhood. Failure to register is a crime. The federal law also requires states to perform yearly verifica- tion. But federal law merely requires that a designated State law enforcement agency shall mail a nonforwardable verification form to the last reported address of the persons and that the person shall sign and return the form within ten days. While the signed form will say that the person resides there, the federal law requires no independent verification. In addition, the federal law requires that the designated law enforcement agencies release rele- vant information that is necessary to protect the public concerning a specific person required to regis- ter.. However, the details of this release of information are left up to the states. Some states release information on all registered sex offenders, while other states only allow law enforcement agencies to release information when they consider a particular person to pose a risk. A problem for newspapers trying to decide whether to print information made available under their states' applicable Megan's law is the accuracy of the informa- tion. Of course, convictions are a Continued on page 2 INSID ... CL&P editor reflects 4 Flag burning amendment 7 Teaching comm. law 10 Legal bibliography 11 Non-legal bibliography 14 Division officers 19 Southeast Colloquium 20

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