Reform Sex Offender Laws Asks for Response From Governor Haley
Cambridge, Mass.– On July, 21, 2013, two vigilantes, Jeremy Moody and his wife Christine, chose a victim from the South Carolina sex offender public registry, went to the victim’s home, gained access through a ruse, and murdered him with knife and gun. For no offense other than being there, his wife was murdered in like fashion.
Charles Parker had been on the registry for 23 years. He was living a quiet and unobtrusive life with Gretchen, his wife, who had committed no crime. Why the Moodys chose him as their target out of thousands is known only to the Moodys. They announced to all who would listen that further victims had been targeted from the public registry and would also have been executed had he not been arrested, with one specifically planned for Wednesday, the 24th.
“He went through our sex offender registry,” said Sheriff David H. Taylor, “and individually picked out targets.”
On July 27th, RSOL sent a registered letter to Governor Nikki Haley expressing not only our dismay at these vicious murders but our concern for other registrants in the area. Rumors were flying that the Moodys were part of a larger organization, but whether or not those rumors have any factual foundation, the comments supporting and praising the Moodys that filled local online comment boards and social media left no doubt of a very real possibility of copycat incidents occurring.
RSOL specifically requested Gov. Haley to remove the home addresses of South Carolina sex offenders from public view. We asked that this be done as an interim measure until, as Gov. Haley herself had said would happen, her next legislative session would convene and consider a more comprehensive remedy.
Over a month has passed, and as of this writing, Gov. Haley has chosen not to respond to the letter that was delivered to her office and signed for by, we presume, a staffer on July 30th at 11:45 a.m.
“We are extremely disappointed and dismayed that Gov. Haley, even with all of the tasks that she undoubtedly has, does not consider the concerns of our organization and the concerns of every man, woman, and child on the public sex offender registry not only in South Carolina but also throughout the nation worthy of, at the very least, a reply acknowledging their legitimacy,” said Brenda Jones, RSOL’s Executive Director.
Within the past two years, registrants are known to have been murdered in the states of Washington, California, and South Carolina, with vicious assaults and beatings occurring in many more, for no reason other than the victims were on a sex offender registry. It would be naive to believe that there are not more that have not been identified for the hate crimes they are or, in some cases, not even reported.
RSOL again calls on Gov. Haley to acknowledge its request and to remove from public view the home addresses of those who are registrants on South Carolina’s sex offender registry. We beg her not to compound this tragedy by taking no action and consequently having to deal with another assault on a registered South Carolina citizen.
First off, I’m on this registry, an listed as a “predator”!!! All from false allegations in a child custody battle that arrived from a divorce! I have people poison my vegetation to include vegetable garden in my yard, throw weeds (seeds), fire ants, and have totally destroyed my yard of 30 years! The mailman leaves the mailbox wide open every time it rains, the garbage man hits the air breaks every time everyone of them passes the house. The phone rings with unknown callers, and I’m not really sure why one of these low-life’s from this terrible state hasn’t tried to confront me. They just don’t believe all the stats about offenders, nor do they believe that a malevolent spouse can do such a thing as accusing the husband falsely to prevent him from winning custody of the children in a divorce. As for Nick Haley.. she was a superintendent for education before making governor.. she will not lift a finger, so I advise not holding your breath on a response. My life has be ruined, my ex-wife and her whole family fled the state after they made the accusations only for me to sit in county on a high bond, couldn’t afford an attorney and sat for almost 3 years until I felt compelled to accept a non-violent “attempting to committ” charge. I spent 7 yrs in prison for a crime that still has not been committed although I’m still paying the price for wanting to make sure my children were safe. This law is sick as the people who have put it in to force. The sex offender registry is NOT stopping the first time sex offenders, namely those who are opposed to it’s removal from the law books, from committing sex offenses. Those are the ones who we need to watch. As for the vigilante, he/she has never been caught because in prison, the one’s who are first to comment or condemn those who have been accused rather falsely or accurately, are the one’s we found first and foremost to have those same skeletons hanging in there closets.. Just informing after reading your post here. My personal comment from personal experience, the continuing consequences, (residuals) are punitive in nature and the one’s who say it’s civil in the protection of the community are the one’s who need to be on a registry to see what the heck they are talking about like myself having to deal with this as a falsely accused dad in a divorce!!!