Jessica's Law
The Senate has signed off on tougher punishments for sex crimes against children. Click below for Emily Ramshaw's early report.
By EMILY RAMSHAW
Austin Bureau
eramshaw@dallasnews.com
The Senate passed its own version of the contentious Jessica’s Laws against sex offenders on Tuesday, after a tempered debate that covered everything from the constitutionality of the death penalty to wrongful convictions in Texas.
The bill, which passed 30-1, increases penalties for many sex offenders and reserves the death penalty for the most dangerous kind: those who have been convicted twice of raping a child. A first conviction for raping a child under 6 – and for particularly egregious cases against youth between ages 7 and 14 -- would come with a mandatory 25-year minimum sentence.
The bill, which came to the Senate from the House, must be returned to the House for final approval. In addition to the heightened penalties, it requires real time GPS monitoring for the worst sex offenders released to the community, and extends the statute of limitations for prosecuting child sex abuse cases to 20 years after the victim’s 18th birthday.
But it’s less punitive than the legislation originally proposed by Sen. Bob Deuell, R-Greenville, and Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst. That version, which would’ve installed 25-year minimum sentences for many degrees of first time sex offenders and allowed prosecutors to seek the death penalty for all repeat child offenders, was tempered after opposition from victims’ rights groups and prosecutors.
Those unlikely opponents have continued to decry many of the components of Jessica’s Law. They fear punishing sex offenders with the death penalty and longer sentences will give juries pause and hamper convictions. They question the constitutionality of sentencing someone other than a murderer to death. And they worry that, with the threat of the death penalty, sex offenders will kill their young victims to destroy the evidence.
“Our concerns haven’t changed,” said Torie Camp, deputy director of the Texas Association Against Sexual Assault, which has spoken out against provisions in the bill. “It’s not just that we fear convictions will be harder to get. We think victims will be less likely to make reports to law enforcement when they understand the end result may be sending a relative or close family friend to prison for 25 years.”
Jessica’s Laws, named for a 9-year-old Florida girl who was raped and buried alive by a convicted sex offender in 2005, are part of a national movement to deter and punish child molesters. The laws, first passed in Florida and now on the books in more than a dozen states, generally carry 25-year minimum sentences for child sex offenders, lifetime electronic monitoring and 2,000-foot child safety zones around parks and schools. Five states have authorized the death penalty for some child sex offenders.