LATE RELEASE – Sex offenders bill headed to governor
Published 9:11 pm Thursday, March 19, 2009
A bill that would require capital murder convicts to register as sex offenders if found guilty of an underlying sexual offense is headed to the governor.
It was one of three bills pushed by Attorney General Jim Hood. All three are headed to Gov. Haley Barbour.
Hood says the sex offenders bill contains retroactive language that would require Douglas Hodgkin and others convicted in similar cases to register as sex offenders upon release.
Hodgkin, who will be released next week on parole, was convicted in 1987 of capital murder in the rape and slaying of Jean Elizabeth Gillies.
The governor has signed bills that would establish felony charges for those accused of dealing in counterfeit products and broaden the definition of identity theft victims.
The bills are House Bills 893, 1357 and 1362.