BY ROSE ANA BERBEO
NEW YORK - Striking a blow to the democratic rights of working people, New York state officials have released a list of 17 names, addresses, photos, and descriptions of people in the state who were convicted of sex crimes and have completed their jail sentences or are on probation. Some of these names were immediately published in the New York Daily News, along with an editorial claiming that "Among convicts, they are the most likely to commit more sex crimes."

The list was released January 3 under the so-called "Megan's Law," which calls for people who have been convicted of sex crimes to register with the state within 10 days of release from prison or probation. The state then decides who is included on a list of names released to police departments and available to anyone. A federal law was passed-New York, New Jersey and other states passed similar laws-after 7-year-old Megan Kanka was raped and killed in 1994. A neighbor, convicted of prior sex offenses, was charged with her murder.

Governor George Pataki hailed the list of 17 names, known as the "Subdirectory of Sexually Violent Predators," as a victory for parents. "Now families will begin to be informed, and be able to take steps to keep their children safe," he said. The Attorney General, Dennis Vacco, is appealing a federal ruling that prohibits publishing an additional 5,000 names of people convicted of sex crimes before Jan. 21, 1996, when the law went into effect. Manhattan Federal Judge Denny Chin ruled that applying the law retroactively constituted "extra punishment" and that "constitutional protections for individuals, even unsympathetic ones, cannot be set aside in the name of the greater good."

Jury selection in the trial of Jesse K. Timmendequas, who is charged with Megan Kanka's murder, began January 13. His lawyers say people with knowledge of "Megan's Law" should be barred from the jury, because if they knew why the law was passed, they would also know that Timmendequas had been convicted of similar crimes before. Potential jurors are filling out 36-page questionnaires about their knowledge of "Megan's Law," and are being individually interviewed, but Mercer County Superior Court Judge Andrew Smithson said that he would not bar jurors who knew about the law.  
 
 
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