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No Second Chances; Law Must Protect Us From Sexual PredatorsThe Bradenton Herald, March 22, 2005 |
Volume 4 Issue 40March 2005 |
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"They made Martha Stewart wear an ankle bracelet and this guy was 150 yards away? We need a new system." That statement by George Kanaris, a former employer of John Couey in Homosassa, speaks volumes about the deficiencies in state law that allowed a convicted sex offender to live within sight of Jessica Lunsford's home without anyone being aware of it. |
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By now everyone who follows the news is familiar with the tragic resolution of the disappearance of 9- year-old Jessica on Feb. 23. Couey, a man described by Citrus County Sheriff Jeff Dawsy as "a crackhead" with an extensive criminal record involving indecent acts with children, admitted Friday he abducted and killed Jessica while he was living across the street from the home Jessica shared with her father and grandparents, the sheriff said. It was a story all too familiar to Manatee-Sarasota residents, who went through the abduction of 11-year old Carlie Brucia in Sarasota just over a year ago. All of the gut-wrenching emotions over the finding of Carlie's body three days later came back last weekend as events around Jessica's murder unfolded: empathy for the child's grieving family, horror over the cruel taking of an innocent life, anger at the man accused of the evil deed and shock that weaknesses in the law permitted it to happen. |
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In Carlie's case, the man accused of the crime, Joseph Smith, would have been in jail the day she walked home from a friend's house had he not been freed earlier by a judge after violating his probation. In Jessica's case, Couey was supposed to have been living miles away but, unknown to probation officers, had moved to a mobile home rented by his half sister across the road from the Lunsfords. Which brings up the point about electronic monitoring bracelets and Martha Stewart. The homemaking queen, on house arrest after serving a five-month sentence for a white collar crime involving insider stock trading, is required to wear one. Couey, convicted of burglaries, indecent exposure and an attempted lewd act on a 14-year-old, was not. Lock'em up longer Jessica's father, Mark Lunsford, is channeling his grief and rage into a campaign to change that. Shocked to learn that the law doesn't keep close track of sex offenders like Couey, Lunsford has begun a petition campaign to require ankle monitors for such offenders as well as harsher sentences for them in the first place. "These people do not deserve to live among us," he told a news conference over the weekend. A petition being circulated in Homosassa calls for predators to face 50-year mandatory sentences and the indefinite wearing of electronic monitoring bracelets. We support Lunsford's crusade. How many more innocents like Jessica must die before Florida faces up 2 to the threat posed by sexual predators? More than eight years ago we were calling for stiffer sentences and electronic monitoring of those released. That came after a convicted predator abducted two sisters in Fort Lauderdale, sexually assaulted one and strangled the other. He too was on community control and was registered as a sexual offender. But no one monitored his activities, and he lured the two girls, age 7 and 11, to his home, their mother unaware he lived nearby. Mental hold justified As we said in 1996, the real issue isn't notification but lack of confinement. As long as sexual predators are capable of repeating their compulsive behavior, they should not be released into society at all. The percentage of "cures" from this terrible perversion is low, but it ought to be an absolute requirement before they are let loose to prey on innocent children again. In fact, stiff terms and ankle bracelets may not be enough. The U.S. Supreme Court gives states the right to hold such criminals in mental institutions after they complete their prison terms. The court ruled in 1997 that convicted pedophiles, rapists and other violent sexual offenders can be confined indefinitely if found to be "mentally abnormal" and likely to commit more sexual offenses if released. Florida should consider such a law as well. Certainly there is a concern that it might be overused to unjustly confine a societal nuisance indefinitely. But the court noted that the Kansas law upon which the ruling is based was specific enough to protect against that possibility, requiring that a judge or jury must decide beyond a reasonable doubt that a convict meets the test. It also provides for annual re-evaluation of each patient. Our nation, whose judicial system is based on law, is justifiably proud of its protection of individual rights. But when those rights impact violently on others' personal safety, especially that of its most vulnerable members, there must be a balancing of rights and safety. Florida must prevent sexual predators from getting second chances to make victims of innocents like Jessica Lunsford and Carlie Brucia. |
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