Florida's child murderer would have freer rein in California

Jessica Lunsford’s father, Mark Lunsford, wishes Florida lawmakers would have kept 46-year-old convicted sexual predator and career criminal John Evander Couey behind bars for life. Instead, the father must bury his nine-year-old daughter, who was snatched from her own bed on February 23 after a day that included attending church and ended by being tucked into bed by her grandmother.

Couey confessed to authorities in Georgia that he snatched the third-grader before sexually assaulting and then murdering her. But the chance to stop Couey from victimizing children presented itself to authorities again and again. Instead, Florida’s justice system repeatedly set him free until he committed this most heinous crime: rape and murder of an innocent child.

Jessica’s father and other family members of abducted children across the nation are calling for a national “one-strike law,” such as the one proposed under the Project KidSafe legislation package introduced by Assemblyman Jay La Suer and myself. Other bills in the package would extend parole periods to 10 years for sex offenses and require Global Positioning System (GPS) monitoring of sex offenders on parole, like Couey.

The Project KidSafe legislation also would provide much-needed funding to my previous law that created regional Sexual Assault Felony Enforcement (SAFE) teams to monitor registered sex offenders, which has proven to drastically reduce violent sexual assault offenses. SAFE teams, such as the one in San Diego County, consist of officers and agents from several law enforcement agencies organized for the purpose of reducing violent sexual assaults through surveillance and arrests of habitual sexual offenders.

Jessica’s body was found near a mobile home where Couey had been staying at the time of the abduction — about 150 yards from Jessica’s house. Her killer had to be brought back to Florida and booked on one of several probation violations and failure to register his change of address as required by a sex offender. No one can say for sure, but if Florida had the combined uses of SAFE teams and GPS monitoring, it may have stilted Couey’s actions.

Of course, such an opportunity would have never presented itself to such a sexually violent predator with his criminal record had Florida instituted a “one-strike law” for offenses against children. Couey’s criminal history spans more than three decades and 24 arrests, including pleading guilty in 1991 to felony charges of a sex offense against a child. Obviously, there were many ignored warnings that this predator was going to kill sooner or later. He deserved one strike, and then to be put behind bars for the rest of his life.

In California, more than 33,000 sex offenders, or nearly 40 percent of those required to register under Megan’s law, are missing or authorities cannot account for their locations. Of these, how many Coueys are out there? California is playing Russian roulette with our precious children. Polly Klaas, Danielle van Dam, Samantha Runnion and now another, Jessica Lunsford — how many more innocents will we allow to be taken before we Californians decide to deal seriously and effectively with child predators? These Project KidSafe measures have been knocked down two, three and more times in our past efforts. Yet this year, this legislature will once again be presented with the opportunity to do the right thing. Sadly, because of Jessica even more will be watching what we do this time.