Legal Commentary

Marlyand Halloween Sign Targets Sex Offenders

By David A. Giacalone

…  Md. Sex Offender Halloween Sign

Last week, we told you again about the spread of laws across the nation restricting the conduct of Sex Offenders on Halloween.  One particularly odious and inane rule, from our perspective, is the requirement in states like Missouri and Maryland that sex offenders post a sign at their homes declaring there is no candy at the residency.  The ACLU is challenging Missouri’s law.  After seeing yesterday’s Washington Times, we hope a challenge will be waged in Maryland, too.

Last year, sex offenders in Maryland were given a simple sign to hang on their doors that read: “No Candy.” Things have escalated this year.

.. A New Scarlet Letter: In the article “Pumpkin symbol marks sex offenders’ homes” (Washington Times, by Tom LoBianco, October 15, 2008), we are shown the sign that sex offenders must display at their homes in Maryland this Halloween.  According to the Times, the bright orange pumpkin is the symbol sex offenders “are required to post on their doors with a warning, in capital letters, to trick-or-treaters: ‘No candy at this residence’.”   In addition to posting the sign, the offenders must stay at home, turn off outside lights and not answer the door.  Some states prohibit sex offenders from decorating the outside of their homes.  But, Maryland is mandating this colorful and “attractive,” Halloween decoration.

The signs were mailed out to Maryland sex offenders, with a letter dated October 1st, from the state’s Division of Parole and Probation.  In it, interim director Patrick McGee has this Orwellian message:

“Halloween provides a rare opportunity for you to demonstrate to your neighbors that you are making a sincere effort to change the direction of your life.”

As we’ve mentioned before, there is no record in the United States (nor in Canada) of any registered sex offender abusing a trick-or-treater on Halloween.  The infamous Fond du Lac Halloween Murderer case was perpetrated in 1973, against an unaccompanied 9-year-old girl, by a man who had never been convicted of a prior sex prior. (see our posts ?halloween tricks: pols vs. sex offenders? and ?hauntingly familiar?).

The Washington Times articles also reports that:

• “Sex offenders In Maryland who do not post the signs and stay home will be taken to court and charged with a violation of parole. However, the new state initiative is not a law.”
• Wonda Adams, a supervisor at the Parole and Probation Division and coordinator of the Halloween watch program says, “Our goal is public safety, and in keeping with that we need to make sure that the individuals under our supervision are provided with the enhanced supervision that we’re committed to.”

• In addition, “The state also this year is distributing pamphlets statewide to warn families and trick-or-treaters to stay away from homes with the pumpkin signs, Mrs. Adams said.”
• One parole agent — who clearly needs a better understanding of the role of the Division and goals of parole –  “has called the new sign a ‘publicity stunt’ and said it should clearly state that a violent sex offender lives at the house.”

At the website of the Maryland Department of Public Safety’s Division of Parole and Probation, I could find no mention at all of the Halloween parole restrictions, nor of the pamphlet for families.  It is especially appalling that the Division has acted on its own — with no statutory mandate — to initiate a program that is likely to target sex offender homes, on Halloween and thereafter, for pranks, mischief, and possibly violence.  The rule will make it harder, not easier, for the sex offender to “change the direction” of his or her life, and rejoin society.

Rather than creating a new Scarlet Letter to focus negative attention on sex offenders trying to straighten out their lives, the good public servants of our parole departments and state legislatures should perhaps consider the Biblical story of the Mark of Cain. Per Wikipedia:

When Cain complained that the curse was too strong, and that anyone who found him would kill him, God responded, “Not so; if anyone kills Cain, he will suffer vengeance seven times over”, and God “set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him” (Gen. 4:15).

According to the Bible, Cain was the firstborn son of Adam and Eve, and had slain his brother Abel.  Here’s how Ray C. Stedman explained the mark that the Bible says God put on Cain, after punishing him:

“[T]he mark of Cain is not a mark of shame, as we usually interpret it. It is not a mark to brand him in the eyes of others as a terrible murderer, to be shunned and treated as a pariah. It is rather, a mark of grace, by which God is saying, ‘This man is still my property. Hands off!’ Thus the heart of God is always ready to show mercy.”

Let’s hope that a bit of mercy will replace the hypocrisy and hysteria that have fueled Halloween restrictions on sex offenders.  Maybe saner heads will reject the unwise, expensive and often counter-productive rules and laws — including residence restrictions — that have been promoted by politicians and civil servants who should know better.

p.s. If I still lived in Maryland (having resided in Bethesda for a few years prior to moving to Schenectady), I’d be tempted to make lots of copies of the Sex Offender No Candy sign, and to urge other non-sex-offenders to use them, too.

Full post as published by f/k/a . . . on October 16, 2008 (boomark / email).