Senates Passes Four Bills Making State Inhospitable To Sexually Violent Predators

March 5, 2014

With the mother of a murdered child looking on, the Florida Senate on Tuesday unanimously passed four bills intended to make the state as inhospitable as possible to sexually violent predators.

Diena Thompson, whose 7-year-old daughter Somer disappeared in Clay County in 2009 while walking home from school, watched in tears from the gallery. After an extensive search, the child’s body was found in a South Georgia landfill, and last year a 26-year man was sentenced to life in prison for her death.

“This is for Somer,” said Sen. Rob Bradley, a Fleming Island Republican and the sponsor of one of the bills. He noted that he was wearing a purple tie because that had been Somer’s favorite color.

The legislative package has been at the top of Senate President Don Gaetz’s agenda since August, when the South Florida Sun Sentinel reported that 594 sexual offenders had gone free since 1999 — only to commit 463 child molestations, 121 rapes and 14 murders.

“We will protect our children and we will scorch the earth against sexually violent predators,” Gaetz, R-Niceville, said in an address Tuesday opening the annual legislative session. “We cannot waste one more day. We cannot lose one more child.”

The Senate approved the following measures:

— SB 522 by Sen. Denise Grimsley, R-Sebring, would require sheriffs to refer for civil-commitment proceedings inmates who are serving sentences in county detention facilities if the inmates are registered sex offenders or sexual predators and have previously committed sexually violent offenses.

— SB 524 by Eleanor Sobel, D-Hollywood, would require a person to be subject to civil confinement as a sexually violent predator after a finding by two or more members of a multidisciplinary team.

— SB 526 by Bradley would increase the length of sentences for certain adult-on-minor sexual offenses and prohibit incentive gain-time for certain sexual offenses.

— SB 528 by Sen. Greg Evers, R-Baker, would require registered offenders to report vehicle information, Internet identifiers, palm prints, passports, professional licenses, immigration status, volunteer work at higher education institutions and other information.

Sobel cited the case of Cherish Perrywinkle, an 8-year-old Jacksonville girl who was kidnapped, raped and murdered last year. A registered sex offender, Donald Smith, will be tried in May for those crimes. Smith, 57, had made repeated failed attempts to kidnap young girls — even posing as a Department of Children and Families worker at one point, authorities say. Under the Senate proposals, he would not have been released before the Perrywinkle abduction given his previous crimes.

After the Senate adjourned, reporters asked Diena Thompson if the bills could have changed what happened to her daughter.

“I don’t know that the law would have changed it for Somer,” she said. “But what I do know is that it would change it for Cherish and many other children to come, so that’s really all that matters.”

The House versions of the Senate bills have passed two committees, and House Speaker Will Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel, said they’ll be ready within two weeks.

by Margie Menzel, The News Service of Florida

Comments

4 Responses to “Senates Passes Four Bills Making State Inhospitable To Sexually Violent Predators”

  1. melodies4us on March 5th, 2014 10:45 pm

    I agree with perdido fisherman. Kill people that hurt children. It is the only was to protect our children. You can’t fix them.

  2. Devastating Dave on March 5th, 2014 10:36 am

    Death by stoning for sexual predators.

  3. paul on March 5th, 2014 10:10 am

    They deserve a slow painful death..

  4. perdido fisherman on March 5th, 2014 8:00 am

    The only law that will insure that one of these creeps can never hurt another child is to pass legislation that carries either the death penalty of life in prison without the possibility of parole with the first offense.
    There is no fixing these animals, no medicine or medical proceedure can cure them, anyone who commits this type of heinous act against a child should have a tracking device surgically planted in thier brain so if they escape custody they can be found easily and where the device could not be removed without a neurosurgeon removing it. I would prefer they be taken out back and hanged immediately after a trial that proves without a doubt the offence they are being tried for commiting.
    No mercy for these people, they are the worst of the worst type of human being, rightup there with murderers and rapist. No money should be spent to keep them locked up.

Written by William Reynolds · Filed Under News