Ohio bills addressing sex offender notification "loophole"

In an attempt for Ohio to close a loophole in its sex offender notification law that left neighbors of a Cleveland man suspected of killing 11 women unaware of his criminal past, State Sen. Shirley Smith, a Democrat from Cleveland, has introduced a bill that would require county sheriffs to go back and look for sex offenders whose presence in a community had not been announced, the Plain Dealer reported this morning.

Although Tier III offenders --the most dangerous class, and the one that included Anthony Sowell, who was accused last year of murdering 11 women and leaving their remains in his suburban Cleveland home -- are required to tell county sheriffs every 90 days where they are living, a rule requiring the sheriff to send out notifications to area residents about the person applies only to newly registered offenders, the article says. Smith's bill, now in the Senate's Judicial Criminal Justice Committee, would presumably close that gap.

A similar bill with the most of the same supporters, introduced last November, is also in that committee.