https://journalstar.com/opinion/letters/letter-5-26-abolish-sex-offender-registry/article_8a8b2132-b7df-50f0-b60c-599deb2b99ef.html

Some people call James Fairbanks ("Omaha police arrest man in sex offender's death," March 20) a hero because he murdered a registered person in cold blood.

There is nothing heroic about premeditated murder.

Fairbanks used information from the Sex Offense Registry and a Facebook  group to help plan his crime and broke into the victim’s home with the intent to kill.

Fairbanks was never in danger, so he cannot claim self-defense.

The Nebraska Sex Offense Registry is an accomplice to this murder. Fairbanks admitted to accessing the registry. Nebraska joins Texas and Florida as states that allow registry information to pop up by a simple Google search, making it even easier for lynch mobs or vigilantes to access the information.

This is also not the first crime in Nebraska linked to the registry; in 2013, Philip McDaniel was attacked by a coworker at a sugar plant after the coworker discovered McDaniel was on the registry.

Concerns of copycat killer are justified; Patrick Drum murdered two registrants in Port Angeles, Washington, in 2012, years after sharing a cell with Michael Anthony Mullen, who also murdered two registrants in 2005.

In Louisiana, use of the registry to target registered persons is prosecuted as a hate crime; Fairbanks should be prosecuted in kind and denied bail.

As a registered citizen and civil rights advocate, I remind the governor, Legislature and state police that they have the duty to protect all Nebraskans. Therefore, the registry should be removed from the public eye. The registry is a bloated, useless government blacklist used only by vigilantes like Fairbanks and has no place in a civilized society.

Derek Logue, Tobias