Nation in brief

Nearly half of Calif. sex offenders not tracked

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- California has lost track of more than 33,000 sex offenders, despite a law requiring rapists and child molesters to register each year for inclusion in the Megan's Law database.

"We don't know where they are," acknowledged Margaret Moore, who until recently ran California's sex offender registry.

Sex offenders are not checking in with law enforcement, which in most cases is a felony. And many overworked police departments are not following up.

"It's not only in California," said Laura Ahearn, executive director of Parents for Megan's Law, a national victims' rights group. "We're expecting sex offenders to be reporting their addresses and that's the problem."

According to 2002 data provided to the Associated Press after repeated requests over nine months, the state does not know the whereabouts of at least 33,296 sex offenders, or 44 percent of the 76,350 who registered with the state at least once. The number might be even higher: No one knows how many offenders never registered after leaving prison.

Failing to register could put high-risk offenders in jail for up to three more years, but most police departments are not enforcing the law.

No one knows how many of these missing sex offenders have struck again. But nationally, 52 percent of rapists are arrested for new crimes within three years of leaving prison, according to the U.S. Justice Department.

The 1996 law is named for 7-year-old Megan Kanka, a New Jersey girl who was raped and killed by a child molester who had moved in across the street. All states have similar laws.

Study: Race, geography affect death penalty cases

COLLEGE PARK, Md. -- Prosecutors in Maryland are much more likely to seek the death penalty in cases where blacks are accused of killing whites, according to a University of Maryland study released Tuesday.

The report also concluded geography plays a major role in whether a defendant faces a potential death sentence, as the decisions by state's attorneys to pursue capital punishment vary widely from county to county.

Outgoing Gov. Parris Glendening commissioned the report in 2000 in response to concerns that the state's death penalty is unfairly meted out according to race and jurisdiction.

Glendening, a Democrat, imposed a moratorium on executions in May while the study was being completed, but Republican Gov.-elect Robert Ehrlich has promised to lift the ban when he takes office Jan. 15.

Malcolm X's papers to be loaned to New York library

NEW YORK -- A collection of Malcolm X's papers that had been the subject of an ownership dispute has been placed on long-term loan with the New York Public Library, officials said Tuesday.

The slain black leader's family members, who will own the documents, approved their placement in the library's Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. The announcement comes 10 months after a lawsuit prevented the collection from going on the auction block.

The collection, valued as high as $500,000, was scheduled for auction last March through Butterfields auction house when the battle over ownership erupted.

Elsewhere . . .

SNIPER 'WITNESS' SENTENCED: A man accused of falsely telling police that he witnessed one of the sniper shootings last October pleaded no contest to an obstruction of justice charge Tuesday.

Matthew Dowdy, 37, of Falls Church, Va., was sentenced to six months in jail and fined $1,000 on the misdemeanor count.

MARINE CORPS LEADER REMOVES MEDALS: Lt. Gen. Michael Hagee, the incoming commandant of the Marine Corps, said Tuesday he has stopped wearing three decorations he cannot prove he won. He said he believes he won all three, but is removing them until he can find the necessary documentation.

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