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Nine Months from the brutal death of their daughter, the Schmidt family changed Kansas Law. They continue to change attitudes and effect public opinion with emphasis on vigilance - not vigilantism.
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August 4, 1993 - The Stephanie Schmidt Task force was formed - comprised of state senators, representatives, a district attorney, business leaders, and friends. By November five legislative bills were drafted regarding repeat sex-offenders .
April 9, 1994 - Only nine months from her death, The Stephanie Schmidt Sexual Predator Act - empowering a State Civil Commitment procedure - became a retroactive law to all Kansas sex-offenders .
May 5, 1994 - All other bills are signed by Governor Finney: The Sex-Offenders Registration Act allowed for the public release of registered sex -
offenders names; increased sentencing time for 2nd time offenders; and changed falsification of information by a sex - offender from a misdemeanor to a felony.
September, 1994 -- the first public list of sex-offenders in Johnson County was published in the newspaper and read on the radio. Nine sexual predator's are sent through civil commitment, to a mental institution - according to the Stephanie Schmidt Sexual Predator Law.
March 2, 1996 - Kansas Supreme Court struck down the Sexual Predator Act as unconstitutional because the act used the words "mental abnormality" instead of "mental illness." The decision was appealed to the US Supreme Court.
April 6, 1996 - The Kansas Supreme Courtupheld the constitutionality of the Sex Offender Registration law with public access to the information. Newspapers are encouraged to print the information regarding released sex offenders who have to register since April of 1994.
December 10, 1996. Oral arguments presented to the U.S. Supreme Court. Forty five states sign on with Kansas as a test case for the constitutionality of the Stephanie Schmidt Sex Predator Law. Once again Kansas leads the nation.
June 23, 1997 - The U.S. Supreme Court in a 5 to 4 decision upheld the Stephanie Schmidt Sexual Predator Law. Thirty states filed immediately for a similar law.
When Stephanie was missing, help from traditional sources was denied because she was over 18. Consequently, The Stephanie Schmidt Foundation places an emphasis on the 16 to 24 year - old group. There is no age limit on crime victims. Because this very vulnerable age group frequently exists in communities based on high degrees of blind trust, The Foundation offers programs of public awareness to ward off those who prey upon this trust.
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According to Gene Schmidt: "The age of 16 through 24 is a time of high vulnerability. This age group is considered adults by family, officials, and themselves. Yet, because they exist in an environment of exceptional trust.They are prey to our worst predators.
Thus, the first S.O.S. Chapter formed at Pittsburg State University, Pittsburg, KS. Additional chapters will provide a watch - guard over a system that continues to be silent about criminal's past and allows them to prey on all of society. Chapters will be pro - active in campus and community based awareness programs and sponsor speakers and forums to break the silence through "Awareness, Alertness, and Action."
The Schmidts continue to work for change in laws and attitudes that will restore common sense back into the judicial system. However their greatest efforts center on changing procedural attitudes and creating effective case law through a Wrongful Death Suit against the Kansas Department of Corrections.
According to Gene Schmidt: "Until we have laws with teeth, bureaucratic agencies will maintain their loathsome and lackadaisical attitude toward job performance and duty to the public. These 'supervisors' must realize that the PUBLIC is the client - not the released felon."
At the time of Gideon's release, the KDOC policy was mandatory employer notification if co - employees were at risk. In depositions, Parole Officer Schirk admitted that all waitresses at Hamilton's Restaurant were at high risk or in danger of being harmed by Gideon - and that he would not have wanted his own daughter working around Gideon. Nevertheless, he failed to notify Hamilton's because he thought Gideon might have lost his job.
The KDOC has taken the position that they had no indication that Gideon would re - offend, they did not have to notify Hamilton's, and notification would not have prevented Stephanie Schmidt's rape and murder at the hands of Gideon.
This position appears contrary to the State of Kansas' position in support of the Kansas Sexual Predator Law (which was recently argued by Kansas Attorney General Carla Stovall before the United States Supreme Court) and Kansas' position in support of the Kansas Sexual Registration law.
In both of these cases, the State argued that 1) it is well known that habitual sex offenders cannot be cured and should not automatically be returned to the streets after serving their sentence, and 2) the public needs to know when a sex offender is in the area in order to take precautions.
Schmidt says, "It is beyond all comprehension and commons sense, that John Campbell, in his position as Deputy Attorney General of Kansas, and the KDOC continue to refute the very essence of the law that the United States Supreme Court upheld as constitutional".
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