Relates to the penalty for the offense of predatory sexual assault against a child

◆ The sponsor's argument

Why James Tedisco says this is needed

In 2005, Jessica Lunsford, a nine-year-old girl, was abducted, sexually assaulted and murdered by a registered sex offender living in her neigh- borhood in Florida. As a result, Florida enacted one of the toughest child molestation laws in the nation, by mandating a 25-year minimum prison sentence for molesting a child less than 12 years of age. "Jessica's Law" has been used to designate all legislation and potential legislation in other states modeled after this Florida law. Numerous states have introduced similar, legislation since Florida's law was enacted with approximately 18 states enacting similar laws. In New York State, "Jessica's Law Lite" was enacted in 2006 that creates the class A-II felony crime of Predatory Sexual Assault Against a Child when a person over 18 years of age commits a class B violent felony sex offense (rape lst, criminal sexual act 1st, aggravated sexual abuse lst, course of sexual conduct against a child 1st) against a child less than 13 years of age. However, the minimum prison sentence upon conviction of this crime is only 10 to 25 years. This bill seeks to make this offense a true "Jessica's Law" by significantly increasing the mandatory minimum prison term to 25 years. Although sex offender registration, GPS monitoring and implementing sex offender "buffer-zones" are additional layers of protection that are effective in protecting our vulnerable from sex offenders, keeping child molesters, in prison for significantly longer periods of time, a minimum of 25 years and a maximum of life, is the one guarantee that these pred- ators will not strike again. Upon their release from prison, this bill would require lifetime parole supervision for such sex offenders where a violation of a condition of parole could result in their return to pris- on.

This is the sponsor's own case for the bill, quoted from their memorandum. It is not Agora's description of what the bill does.