Justice Officials Refute Fox Pundit's Claims

None by KCPW

"We're not soft on sex offenders."

(KCPW News) Fox News pundit Bill O'Reilly is fond of bashing Utah lawmakers for being soft on crime because they have not adopted "Jessica's Law." That law, named for a young sex crime victim, guarantees life in prison for people who sexually abuse children. State Representative Paul Ray insists Utah is far from "soft" on sex offenders.

"O'Reilly's comments are completely false and erroneous," says Ray. "I have people contacting me saying 'We need 25 years.' And I say 'Okay, well do you want 25 or life.' They say 'We want life.' We have that."

Rather than setting a fixed period of incarceration as Jessica's Law requires, Utah's system has a series of minimum and maximum jail time limits left to the courts and Board of Pardons and Parole to determine.

Utah Sentencing Commission Director Tom Patterson says it's a better system because it generally keeps dangerous offenders locked up longer, and in some cases it encourages them to confess information in hopes of a lighter sentence. Patterson believes that switching to Jessica's Law in Utah would end up in fewer sex crimes reported to law enforcement and fewer guilty verdicts.

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