TALLAHASSEE, Florida: The state of Florida is acting tough on child molesters. It enacted a new law, called the Jessica Lunsford Act, providing for a mandatory sentence of 25 years to life behind bars for people convicted of certain sex crimes against children 11 and younger and lifetime tracking by global positioning satellite after they are freed.
The state's governor Jeb Bush signed the act which also ensures that until it becomes a law on 1 September, child molesters are punishable in most cases by up to 30 years in prison.
The enactment comes in the wake of kidnapping, sexual assault and subsequent killing of a nine-year old girl, Jessica Lunsford, in March this year by a convicted sex offender, John E. Couey, living near her home.
The state's legislature speeded up the process after another Florida girl, 13-year-old Sarah Lunde, was found dead and a registered sex offender was charged with killing her.
The measure gives Florida one of the toughest child-sex laws in the nation. Both the Senate and House passed the legislation unanimously.
The law provides for the accused wearing satellite tracking devices for the rest of their lives after their release from the prison. The 25-year minimum term would not be applicable to those convicted of molesting older children.
Experts feel the new law could be a pre-runner to imposing death penalty for more killers, because it allows the accused to be treated as a sexual predator as also a murderer.
Satellite monitoring of offenders will serve two purposes -- one, it will notify the police when the offender enters a barred location and two, when a child is reported abducted, the suspects can be easily tracked.
