Posted on 05/02/2005 10:23:25 AM PDT by LouAvul
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) - With the father of a slain 9-year-old looking on, Gov. Jeb Bush signed legislation Monday that strengthens punishment and monitoring of child sex abusers.
The Jessica Lunsford Act requires those who prey on children under 12 to be sentenced to at least 25 years in prison and, if they get out, to be tracked for life.
The bill was quickly drafted after Jessica's body was discovered in March, and sped through the legislative process, pushed by outraged lawmakers.
Bush said Florida's sex offender laws are already tough, and "this bill will make our laws even tougher. It think it is right and just."
Bush hugged Mark Lunsford after signing the bill, telling him he was proud of his leadership in pushing for the measure so soon after his daughter's death.
Lunsford, wearing a tie with pictures of his daughter, said he has been working so furiously to channel his anger into the legislation he hasn't yet really grieved.
"I'm still lost, I haven't really dealt with it yet," Lunsford said after Bush signed the bill. He called the tie his "hug" from Jessica. "I'm still minus my kiss, but that's my hug."
Lunsford has been at the Capitol often in the last month urging legislators to crack down on predators.
(Excerpt) Read more at sacbee.com ...
But you have to look at how the legal system really works.
No one will plead guilty with a sentence like that. So the DA will have to offer a lesser charge to get a plea. The alternative would be the OJ trial times 50,000.
Only kids under 12 ? Then the killer of the other girl, aged 13, would not fall under this law. Dumb. If you cannot get the death penalty until you're 18, then anyone under 18 should be considered a child. End of story.
No one ever looks at the big picture. A rush to make a law because it's an outcry opens the door for a bad law. They need to do something to the real hard core sex offenders. There aren't as many as the lists tell. The real ones who do this kind of thing should be executed. They are sick. The ones who are on the list are not all predators. Look at Floridas sex offender list.
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