Editorial: Strengthen, uphold Reagan Tokes Law | The Blade - Toledo Blade
If the rights of crime victims mean anything in the Ohio justice system, the Ohio Supreme Court must uphold the Reagan Tokes Law. Efforts to expand and clarify that law should be welcomed in the General Assembly.
Victims too often remain forgotten in the justice system. The Tokes Law and similar efforts resolve to remember victims by preventing others from becoming victims of repeat offenders, and hardened criminals.
The law was named after Reagan Tokes, a woman from Monclova Township. The 21-year-old was brutally kidnapped, robbed, raped, and murdered by an offender in 2017. He’d already been convicted of attempted rape.
The killer had a record indicating he remained a danger to society, yet he was released. He was being monitored, but not in real time. It wasn’t his monitor, but his DNA on a cigarette butt that led to his implication in the murder. The monitor confirmed his presence at the crime scene.
The law allows the state, in certain cases, to keep offenders behind bars for longer than their minimum sentences would require. It did that by bringing back indefinite sentences. A key indicator for that decision would be behavior in prison. If an offender can’t behave behind bars, is releasing them at the start of their potential parole period a good idea?
No. It’s that simple.
Why the Ohio Supreme Court would allow the law to be challenged in a case when state authorities from the Department of Rehabilitation and Correction hadn’t yet decided to apply the law to the convict who filed the suit is astounding.
The court should uphold the law.
House Bill 166 would expand the Tokes Law to require that monitors restrict where the released offender can or cannot go. Violations would be reported by the device. The bill would also make sure parole officers’ caseloads were reasonable to assist in catching violations. The bill would add costs to the state budget but saving lives of innocent victims is worth the price. There is no price that can replace the life of Reagan Tokes.
That bill has passed the House and should pass the Senate.
The Supreme Court should do the right thing and uphold every aspect of the Tokes Law. Justice isn’t just about the cops and robbers.
The victims, too, deserve justice.
The court must remember Reagan Tokes and all victims of violent crime. Uphold the law named in her memory. Keep violent offenders where they belong. In Prison.
If they must be released, monitor them closely.
If the Ohio courts and justice system lets down victims, there is no justice.
source: https://www.toledoblade.com/opinion/editorials/2022/04/03/editorial-strengthen-uphold-reagan-tokes-law/stories/20220402059
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