The Vermont Senate is modifying a bill that would crack down on sex offenders.
The Senate first passed the bill in response to last summer’s slaying of 12-year-old Brooke Bennett, of Braintree. The House then passed a somewhat different version, and the Senate now has responded with some additional changes.
Lawmakers want to get the bill to Gov. Jim Douglas before the Town Meeting Day break that begins Friday. The hope is the bill won’t have to go to a conference committee to work out the differences.
The key difference now concerns deferred sentences, in which defendants get probation and no jail time.