Florida’s sex offenders set to be tagged for life

SPURRED by the kidnapping and murder of a nine-year-old girl, Florida Governor Jeb Bush signed legislation yesterday that will see child molesters who do not get life in jail wear satellite tracking devices for the rest of their lives.

The Jessica Lunsford Act sets a mandatory sentence of 25 years to life in prison for people convicted of molesting children under 12. If offenders serve less than life, they would be required to wear a global positioning system device on release.

The bill was quickly drafted after Jessica's body was discovered on March 19 near her home. The proposal sped through the legislative process, pushed by politicians outraged that the man accused of killing her was a registered sex offender. It passed both the State Senate and House of Representatives unanimously.

Until the new law goes into effect on September 1, molesting a child under 12 is punishable in most cases by up to 30 years in prison.

Mr Bush was joined by Jessica's father, Mark Lunsford, who wore a tie bearing pictures of his daughter and said he had been working so furiously on the legislation that he has not yet really grieved.

"I'm still lost, I haven't really dealt with it yet," Mr Lunsford said. He called the tie his "hug" from Jessica.

John Couey, a convicted sex offender who was living near Jessica, is charged with snatching her from her bedroom and murdering her.

The bill's momentum in the Legislature increased in April after another Florida girl, 13-year-old Sarah Lunde, was found dead and another registered sex offender was charged with murdering her.

The 25-year minimum would not apply to anyone convicted of molesting older children. Those offenders would have to be monitored electronically only during their probation, not for life.

Some offenders already on the street could be ordered back to jail or be placed under GPS monitoring if they broke their probation.

Other states have minimum mandatory sentences for sex crimes against children. A number already require some form of lifetime supervision of sex offenders, including GPS tracking.

However, Florida's new law may be the first requirement of lifetime GPS monitoring for an entire group of people who commit a certain crime.

Florida's new law could also open the door to the death penalty for more killers, because it allows a defendant's status as a sexual predator to be considered as an aggravating factor during sentencing for a murder.