{"id":347426,"date":"2021-07-07T06:00:08","date_gmt":"2021-07-06T20:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=347426"},"modified":"2021-07-07T06:00:08","modified_gmt":"2021-07-06T20:00:08","slug":"bill-will-raise-minimum-sentence-for-sex-crimes-vs-minors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/bill-will-raise-minimum-sentence-for-sex-crimes-vs-minors\/","title":{"rendered":"Bill will raise minimum sentence for sex crimes vs minors"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_347502\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-347502\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/San-Nicolas-pix_2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"415\" class=\"size-full wp-image-347502\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-347502\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Rep. Patrick H. San Nicolas (R-Tinian) meets with Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence associate director Kiki Igitol Benjamin at the CNMI Legislature. (Contributed Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Rep. Patrick H. San Nicolas (R-Tinian) has introduced a measure in the CNMI House of Representatives that would increase the mandatory minimum sentence for individuals convicted of sexual assault in the first degree and sexual abuse of a minor in the first degree.<\/p>\n<p>If enacted into law, House Bill 22-72 would amend the existing law by increasing the mandatory minimum sentence to 10 years for any person convicted of sexual assault in the first degree or sexual abuse of a minor in the first degree, if the person convicted has no record of a felony conviction. Currently, the mandatory minimum sentence is eight years.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI introduced this bill in response to public outcry over the high rate of sexual violence in the Commonwealth, especially against children,\u201d San Nicolas said.<\/p>\n<p>According to the findings and purpose of House Bill 22-72: The Legislature\u2026finds that high mandatory sentences would have a deterrent effect on sexual violence and that victims would be more likely to report if they believed that perpetrators would be sent to jail.<\/p>\n<p>San Nicolas recently met with Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence associate director Kiki Igitol Benjamin to express his desire to partner with the non-profit organization to bring about awareness about domestic violence against family members and sexual violence against children.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI would like to thank Ms. Benjamin for taking the time to visit me. We discussed several legislative proposals in addition to House Bill 22-72. I look forward to meeting with other community stakeholders in our joint effort to help rid the Commonwealth of domestic and sexual violence,\u201d San Nicolas said.<strong> (PR)<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rep. Patrick H. San Nicolas (R-Tinian) has introduced a measure in the CNMI House of&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":347503,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-347426","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347426","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=347426"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347426\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/347503"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=347426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=347426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=347426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}