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| Senate approves plan to track sex offenders |
| By Tallahassee.com |
| Published: 04/25/2005 |
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Fast-track legislation aimed at lifetime tracking of sexual predators took a big leap toward passage last Wednesday in the Florida Senate. The House, Senate and the governor have agreed on major provisions of the $13 million Jessica Lunsford Act: making sexual abuse of a child younger than 12 a life felony, punishable by at least 25 years in prison followed by permanent electronic monitoring. As if to underscore the urgency of the bill prompted by the rape and murder of a 9-year-old Citrus County girl, the Senate took the House version of the bill instead of its own and made some toughening amendments that will send it back to the lower chamber today. With just more than two weeks left in the session, the measure is assured passage. "This is for all our children who have been sexually molested and murdered," said Sen. Nancy Argenziano, the Crystal River Republican from the county where Jessica Lunsford was abducted in February. She also was referring to the slayings of Carlie Brucia, 11, in Sarasota last year and Sarah Lunde, 13, near Ruskin last week. Known sex offenders were charged in the Lunsford and Lunde cases, and the man awaiting trial in the Brucia case was on probation for a violent offense. Under the bill (SB 1216 and HB 1877) by Argenziano and two House members who are former sheriffs, Global Positioning System devices would be mandatory for sexual predators released from prison. They would have to check in with police personally twice a year and would be sent back to prison for absconding or failing to report a change of address. The House passed the bill 118-0 last Tuesday. Argenziano said she and Sen. Rod Smith, D-Gainesville, already had worked out most of the amendments that were added by the Senate in preparation for last week's vote. |
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