Hawley introducing bill to ensure strong penalties for child porn possession

FIRST ON FOX: Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., launched laws Tuesday that will improve penalties for possession of kid pornography and make Federal Sentencing Tips binding once more to make sure that judges impose more durable sentences on offenders.

The “PROTECT Act Invoice of 2022,” which institutes a five-year-mandatory minimal for each the receipt and possession of kid pornography, is being cosponsored by Sens. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., Mike Lee, R-Utah, and Rick Scott, R-Fla. A companion invoice is being launched within the Home of Representatives by Rep. Ken Buck, R-Colo.

This invoice would additionally prohibit judges from sentencing beneath the Tips’ vary for details discovered throughout trial or admitted by the defendant.

“The horror of kid pornography is exponentially worse than it was a decade in the past, and judges handing out lenient sentences for these criminals is an enormous motive why,” Hawley mentioned in a press release to Fox Information Digital. “Whereas the White Home continues to dismiss issues about leniency towards baby porn offenders as a ‘determined conspiracy principle,’ the numbers converse for themselves. Congress should act earlier than this downside turns into even worse.”

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The variety of on-line pictures and movies depicting baby sexual abuse has grown exponentially, with the quantity skyrocketing from lower than 1 million a decade in the past to 45 million in 2018, in accordance with The New York Occasions. In 2021, the variety of pictures and movies had grown to almost 85 million, in accordance with the Nationwide Middle for Lacking and Exploited Youngsters.

The invoice comes per week after Hawley’s heated questioning of Supreme Courtroom nominee Choose Ketanji Brown Jackson concerning her sentences for baby porn offenders that fell beneath federal tips, punishments by the choose that Hawley and different critics have described as too lenient.

Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, speaks throughout the information convention within the Capitol on Tuesday, July 20, 2021, to announce laws which might require the president to seek the advice of with congressional leaders and acquire congressional authorization earlier than exercising sure nationwide safety powers.
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“Those that view and share Youngster Sexual Abuse Materials (CSAM) gasoline demand for the sexual abuse of kids,” Lee mentioned. “Final week’s hearings confirmed that activist judges is not going to do their job except Congress mandates minimal sentences for these violent crimes. This invoice would make the regulation on this space crystal clear: When you view or share CSAM, you’ll go to jail for a really very long time.”

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Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., speaks throughout a information convention about inflation on Capitol Hill on Might 26, 2021, in Washington, D.C.
(Drew Angerer/Getty Pictures)

“Our communities should be protected against sick people who exploit and victimize kids, and in addition from liberal activist judges who abuse their sentencing discretion to let offenders off the hook. Federal sentencing tips for these heinous crimes are crucial, and I’m proud to help this good invoice to make sure tips are strictly enforced,” mentioned Scott.

The invoice is called after the “PROTECT Act of 2003,” which was much like laws the Senate handed 84-0 in 2003.