State Senate passes civil confinement measure inspired by WC woman's murder

Despite a unanimous state Senate vote in favor of a proposed law that would have confined violent sexual predators even after they serve prison terms, the measure was shelved late Wednesday when the Assembly failed to approve the bill.The special session called by Governor George Pataki(R-NY). The bill hit the skids when some Democrats in the Assembly expressed concerns about where predators will be confined. A provision of the proposed law called for predators to be confined in mental hospitals. Some Assembly members say they worried the hospitals would become dumping grounds for sexual predators.The bill would have been named ?Connie?s Law,? after Connie Russo Correiro, a White Plains woman who was fatally stabbed by convicted rapist and sex offender Phillip Grant. In 2005, Russo was walking from work to her car in the Galleria Mall parking lot when Grant attacked her. Grant later told police he was looking for a white woman to kill. Correiro?s sons contend had the proposed law been on the books, their mother might still be alive.The Senate and Assembly will likely reconsider the measure in January.
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