Attorney General Lynn Fitch this week wrote The American Law Institute (ALI) to ask its members to again defer consideration of proposed revisions to Section 213 of the Model Penal Code (MPC) that would weaken the ability of States to prosecute sexual assault, abuse, and exploitation; human trafficking; and sex offender registration.

“Laws against child exploitation, human trafficking, and sexual assault need to be tough to protect the young and vulnerable from predators,” said Attorney General Lynn Fitch. “The ALI is weakening the laws, just when we should be making them stronger. It is a big step backwards, and I will continue to fight to protect victims of these crimes and to ensure citizens are safe from predators.”

On December 9, 2021, General Fitch led a bipartisan coalition of 37 Attorneys General in a letter challenging the proposed revisions. As the Attorneys General wrote then, “The revisions contemplated fail to treat sex predators appropriately and would provide them more freedom to commit these heinous crimes, putting the citizens we represent at greater risk of becoming victims.” As a result, the ALI deferred its planned consideration of these MPC revisions at its January meeting.

Last week, the ALI shared a new draft to be considered at its March 2, 2022, meeting. While these revisions made some of the changes requested by the Attorneys General, it failed to make several critical substantive revisions included in their letter and made additional changes that raise new legal and practical concerns. In her follow-up letter, General Fitch notes that “the revised draft remains extremely problematic and far out of step with contemporary American law and international protocols. Our concerns are not strictly philosophical differences, but also include numerous substantive, legal, and procedural issues….”

Amongst the continuing and new concerns:

Incestuous sexual assault is only a registrable sex offense when the minor is under 16 years of age;

Failure to register, currently a felony carrying up to five years under Mississippi law, is a misdemeanor;

Offenders under 18 years of age would not be required to register, except under limited circumstances, even if the offender was convicted as an adult;

Kidnapping, online enticement, sex trafficking, and crimes related to producing and possessing child sexual abuse material (CSAM) are removed as registrable offenses;

Advertising, obtaining, patronizing, and soliciting are removed as predicate acts to establish sex trafficking; and

Maximum length of time a person would be required to register, which is currently tiered at lifetime, 25 years, and 15 years, based on the crime, under Mississippi law, would be 15 years.

Attorney General Fitch will continue to work with her colleagues through the National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG), where she is the co-chair of the Human Trafficking Committee, to fight for a Model Penal Code that gives states the ability to protect citizens from crimes like human trafficking and sexual assault and exploitation and to prosecute thoroughly the predators who commit these crimes.