 "Photo: Bryant Haertlein")
Gov. Rick Perry and others appeared Monday at the Capitol to sign a bill to increase punishment for sexual predators whose victims are under the age of 14. Texas House Bill 8, also known as Jessica's Law, makes repeat offenders eligible for the death penalty and tracks sexual predators using global positioning devices, among other provisions.
"The purpose of House Bill 8, as I said on the floor of the House, was to make Texas safer for our children and more dangerous for their predators," said State Rep. Debbie Riddle, R-Houston.
Jessica's Law is named after Jessica Lunsford, a nine-year-old Florida girl who was kidnapped, raped and killed by a convicted sex offender in February 2005. Her father, Mark Lunsford, has been touring the country to promote similar laws.
"I want to see all 50 states make tougher changes," said Lunsford, who attended the ceremony. "Not changes like some states try to do things to make people feel good. That's kind of worthless."
For Lunsford, the most important provisions of the bill were those calling for GPS tracking and a minimum punishment of 25 years to life in prison without parole for aggravated sexual assault of a child under the age of six for continuous sexual abuse of any young child.
The tracking process takes time, Lunsford said. Florida, where the first Jessica's Law passed, is still working on finding all registered sex offenders two years after the law took effect, he said.
The most controversial aspect of the bill is the possibility that two-time offenders could be sentenced to death, said John English, chief of staff for Rep. Riddle.
"There are people who are not deterred by any level of penalty," English said. "Those are people that the death penalty is for. If you're not going to be deterred by anything and if the penalty won't keep you from committing the crime in the first place, then we want you to be removed from society permanently, either through life without parole or execution."
Several organizations in opposition to the bill support harsher punishment of sex offenders and greater child-protection measures, but many of them are fundamentally opposed to the death penalty.
"In these cases, the use of the death penalty is disproportionate for the crime," said Bob Van Steenburg, vice president of the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, said in an e-mail. "No murder has been committed. Life without parole can both protect society from offenders as well as provide a severe punishment. The state does not need to take a life to accomplish its goals of punishment and protection."
House Bill 8 becomes effective Sept. 1 and applies only to crimes committed on or after that date, according to Texas Legislature's Web site.
"It's time to turn the tables, and instead of them stalking our kids, we will stalk them," Lunsford said. "Instead of them being our worst nightmare, we become theirs."
Lunsford said he would like to make a difference at the national level and has formed a coalition of parents lobbying for the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act. The federal act, signed in July 2006, mandates that a national sex offender registry be created and that the most severe offenders update authorities of their whereabouts every three months.
"It takes money," Lunsford said. "Unfortunately, the federal government will sometimes pass bills without funding them, and then after three years, they die."
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