Mark Lunsford and Jessica’s Law
March 6, 2007 by MCA
Mark Lunsford in an interview after the John Couey trial today spent a few minutes answering questions about Jessica’s Law. One of the concerns he has with it and other child protection legislation is whether there is sufficient funding being provided both on the State and Federal levels. He expressed concerns that to often legislators are quick to congratulate each other for passing the laws but fall short on implementing or funding them.
In spite of his lobbying efforts not all states have passed any meaningful sex offender legislations. Has your state passed the Jessica Lunsford Act? You can find out here.
The Jessica Lunsford Act (summary)
- Increase the penalty for lewd and lascivious molestation of a child to life in prison or a split sentence of a mandatory minimum 25-year prison term, followed by lifetime supervision with electronic monitoring.
- Increase, from 20 to 30 years, the period of time before a sexual predator is allowed to petition to have the sexual predator designation removed.
- Increase sexual predator/offender registration and reporting requirements.
- Sexual predators who murder their victims now qualify for the death penalty in capital cases.
- Designate failing to re-register as a sexual offender/predator or harboring or assisting a sexual predator/offender a third degree felony.
- Require those already convicted of sex crimes to have electronic monitoring for the remainder of their probation.
- Require all county misdemeanor probation officials to search the sexual offender registry when a new offender is assigned to them.
AUSTIN – Under the politically popular sex offender penalties known as “Jessica’s Laws,” California will spend nearly $130 million next year tracking child predators. Florida will shell out close to $12 million. Louisiana, the first state to sentence a child sex predator to death, will spend $1 million. But the version of Jessica’s Law up for a vote in the Texas House today will cost Texans next to nothing for at least five years, according to financial reports prepared by legislative budget analysts.
Will cost impact the effectiveness of the law?
