WASHINGTON, Dec. 9 -- Sen. Dick Durbin issued the following press release:
U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, questioned witnesses in today's Senate Judiciary Committee hearing entitled "Protecting Our Children Online Against the Evolving Offender." Durbin first questioned Jessica Smolar, a former federal prosecutor who investigated and prosecuted child exploitation offenses, about the current child exploitation sentencing guidelines and whether those current guidelines are deficient in assessing the evolving child sexual offender.
"What you tell us [in Ms. Smolar's testimony] is [that] less than 30 percent of nonproduction child pornography defendants were sentenced within th...