Jeb Bush Signs The Jessica Lunsford Act Into Law

Florida Governor, Jeb Bush, has just signed the Jessica Lunsford Act in to law. This will be the most comprehensive law against child sex offenders in the country.

TALLAHASSEE, Florida — Governor Jeb Bush plans to sign legislation today to get much tougher on sex offenders, an effort spurred by the death of Jessica Lunsford.

The measure will require those who prey on the youngest children to be sentenced to at least 25 years and if they get out of prison to be tracked for life.

The Jessica Lunsford Act was quickly drafted after her death was discovered in March, and sped through the legislative process.

Lawmakers unanimously passed the Legislature last month. Nine-year-old Jessica was taken from her Homosassa home and murdered, allegedly by a convicted sex offender who was living nearby.

John Couey is charged with Lunsford’s kidnapping and murder. Police say he confessed.

The bill would require 25-year minimum prison terms for people convicted of certain sex crimes against children and lifetime tracking by global positioning satellite once they’re outside of
prison.

Congress is also considering adapting the Jessica Lunsford Act to protect children against child predators.

First there was Megan’s Law, and then came the Amber Alert law. Now Congress is considering the Jessica Lunsford Act.

All three bills have something in common: They were named after slain children, and their goal is to prevent future tragedies.

The bill was introduced in the House last week in response to the February abduction, sexual assault and murder of Jessica Lunsford, a 9-year-old Florida girl. The suspect in the case is a registered sex offender who had not told authorities he had moved.

It is about time that law makers are taking these crimes seriously. It is just unfortunate that it took a rash of extremely public abductions and murders of children in order to bring pressure to bare against legislators to pass these laws. I have always wondered why there were not more strict laws.

“I would like to see them stay in jail a lot longer than we do (but) anything that we can do to try to minimize the opportunity a sex offender has to harm children is a good thing,” Foxx said.

Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-10th, another co-sponsor, agreed.

“I don’t think we can do enough to protect children,” McHenry said.

“We need to have the harshest possible punishment for those who hurt those who cannot protect themselves,” he said.

UPDATE: Fox News first to confirm the Governor’s signing of The Jessica Lunsford Law.

Spurred by the kidnapping and murder of a Citrus County girl, Gov. Jeb Bush signed legislation Monday to get much tougher on sex offenders.

The Jessica Lunsford Act requires those who prey on the youngest to be sentenced to at least 25 years in prison and if they get out to be tracked for life.

UPDATE II: More from the 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.

Update III: Michelle Malkin posts some interesting points and asks that same question we have, “How will the ACLU react.”