Wouldn't it had been nice if....
 

...this piece of human debris, this waste of molecules, had been snared in one of those pedohile sting operation and then, after his original conviction had expired, be kept away, for as long as possible purusuant to civil commitment statutes for violent sexual offenders. Jessica may be alive today.

Sex Offender Guilty in Fla. Girl's Death
Thursday, March 8, 2007 9:06 AM EST
The Associated Press
By CURT ANDERSON

MIAMI (AP) — The sex offender convicted of kidnapping, raping and then killing 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford by burying her alive behind his trailer could now face the death penalty.

Jurors deliberated for about four hours Wednesday before finding John Evander Couey guilty. They'll return Tuesday to consider whether he should face life in prison or death.

"With capital cases, I'm all for the death penalty. It's an eye for an eye," the girl's father, Mark Lunsford, said Thursday on CBS' "The Early Show."

Jessica was snatched from her central Florida bedroom in February 2005 about 150 yards from the trailer where Couey, 48, had been living. Her body was found in his yard a month later encased in two black plastic trash bags and buried in a shallow hole.

The little girl had been clutching a purple stuffed dolphin when she suffocated but had managed to poke two fingers through the bag.

Her disappearance led to a crackdown around the country on people convicted of sex crimes. Couey, a convicted sex offender, hadn't told authorities he was living near the Lunsford home even though he was required to do so.

In court Wednesday, Couey stared straight ahead and swayed slightly as the verdicts were read on charges of first-degree murder, sexual battery on a child, kidnapping and burglary. Lunsford, who has helped push efforts for tougher monitoring of sex offenders, showed no emotion.

Outside the courtroom, Lunsford said that he knew "justice would prevail" but that the case wouldn't be complete until the sentence was imposed.

Circuit Judge Richard Howard will ultimately decide Couey's sentence. He is not required to follow the jury's recommendation, but judges typically give the recommendation great legal weight.

A psychologist testified for the defense that Couey, who spent much of the trial drawing with colored pencils, has signs of mental illness and mental retardation — mitigating circumstances that could help spare him the death penalty.

He admitted to investigators shortly after his arrest that he committed the crime, but the confession was thrown out because he did not have a lawyer present as he had requested.

"I felt confident that we had an overwhelming amount of facts we could present to the jury," said Brad King, chief prosecutor in the case, outside the courthouse after the verdict.

The evidence at trial included DNA from Jessica's blood and Couey's semen on a mattress in his bedroom, as well as Jessica's fingerprints in a closet in the trailer.

Jail guards and investigators testified that Couey repeatedly admitted details of the slaying after his arrest and that he insisted he had not meant to kill the third-grader but panicked as police searched for her.

Couey had previously been arrested in 1991 on a charge of fondling a child. In 1978, he was accused of grabbing a girl in her bedroom, placing his hand over her mouth and kissing her. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison in the case but paroled in 1980.

Jessica's killing prompted Florida and a number of other states to pass new laws cracking down on sex offenders and improve tracking of them through databases and satellite positioning devices.

Mark Lunsford, Jessica's father, is now working with the group "Stop Child Predators," which advocates for stricter penalties and an integrated nationwide sex offender registry.

"I can't get my hands on the guy that murdered my daughter so I've made it my job to make the rest of these sexual offenders and predators' lives miserable, as miserable as I can," he said.

This really makes me sick. The thought of that little girl dying like that is one of the most horrible thoughts I can imagine.

Being a part of the legal system, what would you recommend be done in light of this, Ernesto? I know it's tricky to preserve the legal rights of individuals while also protecting society fron creeps like this guy.

On until now I was in a fairly decent,placid mood.I have a 7 year old daughter.

Strapping him to a St.Andrew's cross and emasculating him with dull Felco pruning shears whilst pouring molten lead down his gullet would be too mild for him,I opine:mad:

Personally I'd like to tie(sp) a rope around that basT$%#@ testicles, and attach the rope to a toyota pick up truck and drag him around town. Don't need to waste the tax payers money feeding this guy.

There is a certain Medieval, Spanish-Inquisition-like, flavor to your way of thinking.

I must say that I like it very much.

:behead:

PS: I know exactly how you feel, having daughters myself. But this can happen to boys as well. What about the story of that "pedazo de mierda" who recently kidnapped a young boy and left him out on the woods?

So, then you DON'T think he just needs some intensive therapy and understanding so that he can get better?

Thank You.

That is due in no small measure to my father's Iberian heritage......

This is not an easy question to answer because it involves separating the emotional, feeling part of me--as a parent and human being--from the intellectual, educated legal part of me.

I know what the emotional side wants to do to these beasts, the intellectual side, however, keeps getting on the way.

But I will give yo my own suggestions when I have a little bit more time.

In the meantime I'd like to hear what everyone else has to say/write.

Carleton, you are indeed an eclectic person!

Si, ya me recuerdo. :D

Epileptic too, don't forget the Dilantin and Phenobarb!:D

That is, of course, the whole point to our legal system and what separates it from vigilante justice and lynchings in the street. Have you read John Grisham's last (non-fiction) book, An Innocent Man?

Apparently, way more innocent people are convicted of capital crimes and sentenced to death than I ever imagined. I know the system is intended to err on the side of letting the guilty go free as opposed to convicting the innocent. It is highly disturbing to read about people being convicted of murder on the basis of little or no real evidence.

FTS.

Come on, Mistress, don't be afraid to state your opinion. . . What in the heck does "FTS" mean anyhow? :D

I agree that convicting innocent people is wrong.

I am not sure of the numbers, but I am willing to bet you that those stats are for very old crimes.

With the wide use of DNA, convicting the wrong person is becoming less and less of a possibility.

And I suppose that it varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiciton. Where I practice, there are so many checks and balances that the odds of bringing an innocent man to trial, and convicting him, are almost nil.

I don't read Grisham, I've never liked him or his style. I do like Scott Turow. I like the Chicago cases better than I like Grisham's Southern fiction. If I want Southern fiction I read Faulkner. :D