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John Couey, convicted of killing 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford, had died of cancer, according to Jessie's grandfather, Archie Lunsford. "We got a call from the warden this morning," said Lunsford. Mark's mother, Ruthie, said this "is the best news she has heard." Couey, 51, had been in Florida State Prison near Jacksonville. He died 11:15 a.m. today at a Jacksonville hospital, state Department of Corrections spokeswoman Gretl Plessinger said. "So far, no one has claimed his body," she said. "If no one claims it, he'll be buried in an inmate cemetery at Union Correctional Institution in Starke."

A Florida judge sentenced John Evander Couey to death Friday for the kidnap, rape and murder of 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford. Couey, a convicted sex offender, buried Lunsford alive in two black trash bags with her hands bound and her favorite purple stuffed dolphin tucked in her arms, Circuit Judge Richard Howard said. Lunsford's body was found in a grave in Couey's yard about three weeks after she disappeared. "He secured her fate with a second bag," Howard told the court. Howard called the murder "cold and calculated," causing a "slow, suffering and conscious death." Couey, appearing in a red jumpsuit...

FOXNEWS

Live coverage of the court room on Fox News

A psychologist cast doubt Wednesday on defense claims that the man convicted of killing 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford is mentally retarded, rating John Evander Couey as average in ability to hold jobs and get through daily life. The testimony by prosecution expert Harry McClaren is important as a jury weighs whether to recommend a life prison sentence or the death penalty for Couey. McClaren's remarks suggest that Couey is able to adapt adequately despite any mental challenges, including low IQ. Mentally retarded people cannot be executed under both Florida law and a 2002 U.S. Supreme Court decision. But a key factor...

As we await the sentencing phase of the trial of John Couey, the brutal murderer of Jessica Lunsford, we should ponder how on earth Couey was able to commit this vile crime. He was able to do it because, despite a 25 year long criminal history, he was free and out on the streets to commit more crime. Why? Because of Liberal policies on crime and punishment. He had twice before been convicted of sex crimes and had twice been allowed back out on the street. If he had been executed after his first sex assault Jessica Lunsford would be...

GASTONIA, N.C. -- Jessica's aunt, Susan Lunsford, was actually on her way home when a friend called to tell her about Wednesday's verdict. She told Eyewitness News she pulled over and listened to it over the phone. Lunsford could barely contain her emotions as she watched news coverage of the trial in Florida from her living room in Gastonia. She says, "it wasn't that I doubted it; it was just I needed to hear it. I needed to hear it. " Nine year-old Jessica Lunsford was kidnapped from her bedroom of her Central Florida home in February 2005. John Couey...

MIAMI — A jury found a sex offender guilty Wednesday of kidnapping and raping a 9-year-old girl and burying her alive in a crime that led to a crackdown around the country on sex offenders.

Verdict up

So John Couey has found a relaxing way to while away the hours in court, by coloring in drawings of dinosaurs. Look! He even manages to stay within the lines! How sweet. Gag me. This new activity for the man accused of committing the most horrendous crime in Citrus County's history may well be just his childish way of killing time before he is tried for killing a real child. Or it may be a sick, desperate ploy by a defense team to win a drop of sympathy from a jury that soon will get to know the real John...

The national media won't tell you, but in Miami right now, a man named John Couey is on trial for brutally killing a 9-year-old girl named Jessica Lunsford. Couey, a convicted sex offender, kidnapped Jessica out of her modest Florida home, brought her to a trailer, sexually abused her, and then buried her alive. When authorities found her body, she was clutching a stuffed dolphin. Because of that heinous act, the state of Florida passed "Jessica's Law," which mandates that a first-time conviction for felony sexual battery on a child will result in a 25-years-to-life prison sentence. No plea bargain,...

Who was this 9-year-old girl whose death led to significant legal changes in Florida and nationwide? Before Feb. 24, 2005, before she was taken from her room in her home in the dark, before she was kept and raped and buried alive in black plastic trash bags, before her name and her face conjured a crime and a law and a cause, she was just Jessie. Jessica Marie Lunsford was born Oct. 6, 1995, at Gaston Memorial Hospital in Gastonia, N.C. Her grandmother, Ruth Lunsford, said she wasn’t “red or wrinkled or nothing like that,” and her grandfather, Archie Lunsford,...

INVERNESS, Fla. (AP) — The trial of a man charged with kidnapping, raping and burying alive a 9-year-old girl will begin next month as planned, a judge ruled Wednesday. John Evander Couey's attorneys wanted his scheduled Feb. 12 trial for the March 2005 slaying of Jessica Lunsford delayed so they can have more time to question new witnesses for the prosecution. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty. Circuit Judge Ric Howard appointed a third attorney to Couey's defense team to help interview the new witnesses, jail guards who allegedly heard Couey make incriminating statements. Couey has pleaded not guilty to...

TAVARES, Florida — The judge in the murder trial of a man accused of killing Jessica Lunsford has stopped jury selection because he says an impartial panel can't be found in the area. John Couey's taped confession and other details of the case have received widespread media coverage. The judge threw out the confession before the trial because investigators ignored Couey's requests to speak to an attorney during questioning. Attorneys spent three days this week weeding out potential jurors who had been exposed to news reports about the case. Circuit Judge Ric Howard had moved jury selection to Tavares in...

Kansas House Bill 2576 is being heard in the House of Representatives. http://www.kslegislature.org/fiscalnotes/2006/2576.pdf Please support the Kansas version of the "Jessica Marie Lunsford" act to put those perpetrators that prey on children away for life.

The confession of a man charged with kidnapping, raping and killing 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford isn't admissible in court, but the discovery of her body can be used as evidence, a judge ruled today. John Evander Couey, a 47-year-old convicted sex offender, gave the confession to detectives, but also told them that he wanted to consult a lawyer. He wasn't given the opportunity to do so. Jessica Marie Lunsford was found kneeling and clutching a stuffed animal, hands tied with speaker wire and fingers poking through the garbage bags in which she was buried alive in March 2005. Two days earlier,...

Megan Kanka, Jessica Lunsford, Shasta Groene.These girls, all believed to be sexually molested by men and two of them killed, have generated headlines, prompted states to stiffen penalties against offenders and caused many parents to fear their child could be next.Yet gut-wrenching as these high-profile cases are, they don't tell the whole story of sex offenders in America. They don't reflect the surprisingly good news: Sex crimes against children have dropped dramatically in the last decade. An online national sex-offender registry was launched in July. And recent research shows doctors can better predict which offenders may strike again. "There's a...

WILL THERE BE JUSTICE FOR JESSICA LUNSFORD IN Circus (Citrus) County On March 19, following the arrest of John Couey. I realized I had knowledge of whereabouts Couey on and around March 3. He was living in the home of Gene and Madie Secord, on N. Whitewater Terrance in Crystal River, which the Secord had just rented on March 2. Couey’s resided with them after they all fled from their pervious home in Homosassa, which they shared with Dorothy Dixon and Matthew Dittrich only 8 days after a innocent soul, Jessica Lunsford disappeared. He immediately refurbished the kitchen floor for...

TALLAHASSEE, Florida (AP) -- State corrections officials will test two satellite systems starting next week that will eventually be used to track sex offenders. The Department of Corrections says if tests are successful, they'll award contracts for global positioning system tracking devices to be used under the Jessica Lunsford Act. Houston-based Satellite Tracking of People would cover northern Florida and G4S Justice Services would cover South Florida. The state also wants to match GPS tracking data with crime data to determine whether people with criminal backgrounds are in crime site areas. The Lunsford Act requiring sex offender tracking goes into...

Fairhope looks at ban on sex offenders Ordinance being drafted that would prevent any from moving into the city; an outright ban would be the only one in Alabama Thursday, July 21, 2005 By DAN MURTAUGH Staff Reporter Fairhope is in the early stages of drafting an ordinance that aims to keep convicted sex offenders from moving into the city, officials said Wednesday. Police Chief Chris Browning said he and Mayor Tim Kant have been discussing a possible ban for a few weeks. The city's action could take the form of a ban on sex offenders within city limits or...