Texas Proposes Execution for Repeat Child Sex Offenders

The Texas House of Representatives passed a bill last month called Jessica’s Law, which imposes harsh fines on repeat child sex offenders. Jessica’s Law is named after Jessica Lunsford, a Florida girl who was abducted, raped, put into a garbage bag, and buried alive by a man in her neighborhood who had been convicted twice before of sex crimes against children. Jessica’s Law carries a minimum of 25 years to life in prison for a first conviction, and a second conviction can result in the death penalty.

Backers of a similar Senate bill say that they have agreed to a compromise bill that would allow the death penalty to be sought only for people who are convicted twice of raping a child 13 or younger. The law will also increase mandatory minimum sentences for various other sex crimes against children. It also requires most convicted predators to serve at least 74% of their sentences.

Sen. Bob Deuell, the sponsor of the bill, said that the only thing the bill will impose the death penalty for is two "penetration" aggravated sexual assaults of a child. "There’s a trigger in there that if the U.S. Supreme Court rules that the death penalty for nonmurder is unconstitutional, then everything will revert back to life without parole." The Senate could begin deliberations on the compromise bill as early as Thursday.

More than a dozen states have already passed various versions of Jessica’s Law. Texas Gov. Rick Perry has said that the passage of a child sex offender bill is a legislative emergency, and Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst has led the charge for increasing the penalties for child molesters. "The goals here were pretty simple: protect children, send a message to child predators. Texas is not going to tolerate these kinds of heinous crimes," said Rich Parsons, a spokesman for Dewhurst.

The proposed bill will increase the crime of sexual assault of a child from a second-degree felony to a first-degree felony, thereby increasing the minimum sentencing from two to 10 years. The bill will also increase sentencing for possession of large amounts of child pornography and indecency with a child.

David Gonzalez, of the Texas Criminal Defense Lawyers Association, criticized the mandatory minimum sentencing, adding that defense lawyers had not been included in most of the negotiations for the compromise bill. Gonzales said that it is unconstitutional to sentence the death penalty for nonmurder offenses.