Although Bills 3452 and 1865 are largely reasonable they might be amended to include a clause assuring the defendant the right of bail pending appeal, unless the mental state of said defendant is obviously a danger to the community. Again there is always the chance that the accused is innocent and this chance must be considered.

But when studying Bill 744 (designed to add section 5501.3 to the Welfare and Institutions Code) there can be found a very real danger to civil liberties which certainly should be fought to the utmost. This proposal would make possible arrest on no foundation other than rumor and gossip, could be used vengefully or as blackmail. It is virtually a go-ahead to present entrapment methods of local vice squads. Its intent may be positive, even innocuous, but its possible and probable use constitutes encouragement to official inefficiency and corruption. This bill must not be passed as it now stands. Read it, consider its implications and take action by immediately informing your representative in Sacramento of your opinion.

It can happily be reported here that the Bill (3049) requiring suspension of a sex offender's driver's license is either dropped or in the process of being dropped at this writing. The absurdness of this statutory idiocy is nothing to be smiled away. It may reappear in another form or substitutions made of equally vindictive nature.

Bill 918 again brings up the situation of perhaps well-intentioned legislation ignoring the possibility that the defendant is innocent. It should not be passed as it stands. This also applies to the bill requiring mandatory death sentence to serious sex offenders found guilty (3393). The extremity of this proposal reflects social insecurity where a sense of justice should prevail. It has been statitstically proven that drastic sex laws do not lessen sex crimes and most of these statistics can be found in California trial records.

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Bills which might be substantially beneficial to the community are 1860, 1859, 707-7, 3344, 3444, 3457-8.

But nowhere do we see in proposed legislation, bills or amendments affirming the defendant's right to know the particulars of the charges brought against him prior to the time he is required to make a plea. He should be given and informed of these rights at all times. At present this is certainly not the case. Myriad incidents substantiate this fact. Argument against such a proposal can only run to the effect that he already has these rights in the Constitution of the United States. The point is well taken. He has these rights on paper.

A reading of the above reviewed bills again reminds us that those who make our laws are still hounded by the conviction that all sexual deviation leads to crimes against others from rape to murder. Most of the proposals now being debated are concerned with punishment of sex offenders of the individual rather

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