Highlights of the Jessica Lundsford Act:
These guidelines were enacted by the Florida Legislature in memory of Jessica Lundsford, a young girl who was kidnapped, molested and killed by a sexual offender living in her neighborhood in Homosassa, Florida.
The Act:
- Requires a sexual predator or offender to report in person twice a year – during the month of his or her birthday and the 6th month thereafter, to the sheriff’s office in the county in which he or she resides and creates a third degree felony for those who fail to report.
- Extends the period for a petition to remove a sexual predator designation from 20 to 30 years for those designated after September 1, 2005.
- Provides criminal offense for those who assist, harbor, or conceal a sexual predator or sexual offender in eluding law enforcement or provides false information.
- Provides a criminal offense for a person who alters, tampers, damages or destroys any court-ordered electronic monitoring equipment.
- Provides a life felony and 25 year mandatory minimum term of imprisonment for committing a lewd or lascivious molestation on a child under 12 when the offender is 18 or older. If not life imprisonment, provides for a split sentence for person convicted of a life felony for a lewd and lascivious molestation on or after September 1, 2005, to include electronic monitoring for the duration of the defendant’s natural life.
- If the probationer or offender is a registered sexual predator or offender, a court finding is required with regard to the dangerousness a person is to the public prior to his or her release on bail.
- Adds mandatory electronic monitoring for a conditional releasee whose crime was committed on or after September 1, 2005 for certain offenses where the victim was 15 years or younger and the offender is 18 years or older.
