Chris's Crime Forum

Justice For Jessie:Death For Couey!

INVERNESS—A Florida judge has sentenced sex offender John Couey to die by lethal injection for the 2005 kidnap, rape and murder of 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford.

Citrus County Judge Ric Howard followed the recommendation of a Miami jury which had voted 10-2 in March in favor of the death penalty for Couey, 48, convicted of kidnapping, raping and murdering the girl, burying her alive in two black plastic trash bags.

The case had been moved to Miami after an impartial jury could not be seated in Central Florida.

Jessica’s father, Mark Lunsford and his parents, Ruth and Archie Lunsford, were present in the courtroom and listened as the judge described the crime in graphic detail and how her body was found.

“Sentencing is about a final accounting, it is a closure, it is a reckoning,” the judge said.

“He caused a slow, suffering, cautious death, Jessica was placed not in one, but two trash bags,” Howard said. “She was alive when he started to shovel the dirt over her body.”

“He saw the victim playing in her yard and planned the burglary,” Howard said. “He hid her in the closet for days. When he became fearful of the policemen, he dug a hole.”
Couey’s attorneys had argued that Couey, 48, should be sentenced to life imprisonment rather than death because mentally ill people can’t be executed. They argued that Couey had had a troubled childhood.

But earlier this month, Howard ruled that Couey isn’t mentally retarded and was eligible for the death penalty. He said that while the Florida Supreme Court had put the cutoff for retardation at 70 or below, John Couey’s most credible intelligence exam showed he has an IQ of 78.

The judge found that the actions of Couey “are far from simple acts. The defendant stealthily entered the Lunsford family home and kidnapped Jessica. … A person who is mentally retarded simply could not have planned such a sophisticated crime, and escape.”

At the sentencing, Howard said that the facts of the crime “vastly outweighed” the arguments advanced by Couey’s attorneys.

Couey, a convicted sex offender, had killed the child after he snatched her from her bedroom in 2005 about 150 yards from a trailer where he was living. She was suffocated and was found clutching a purple stuffed dolphin. Following an intensive three week search, her body was found in a hole outside of Couey’s trailer.

Jurors said that the pictures of the girl’s body and the autopsy photos had forever changed their lives and that they would hold their children closer to them.

Couey had at first denied any involvement but later confessed, a confession that his attorneys sought to have excluded at trial.

Couey’s criminal record includes 24 burglary arrests, carrying a concealed weapon and indecent exposure. The Lunsford case brought a national spotlight on predators of children. Many states, including Florida and New York, enacted new laws relating to the registration of sex offenders and tracking of them through databases and satellite tracking devices. 8-24-07

http://tinyurl.com/3yxcv7

This is a monster who so deserves to die for his sins.

Florida Bill Would Give Molesters Life On 2nd Offense
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- A legislative panel stood and applauded the father of 9-year-old-murder victim Jessica Lunsford on Tuesday before approving a bill he said would have prevented her death.

Mark Lunsford, sometimes pausing to choke back tears, spoke on behalf of the measure (HB 85) that would send child molesters 18 years or older to prison for life if convicted more than once of molesting a child under 12.

"If John Evander Couey would have got life for his second offense, I wouldn't have spent Christmas alone," Lunsford said.

Couey, 49, was sentenced to death last year for kidnapping Lunsford's daughter, raping her and burying her alive in his yard.

Couey, already a convicted sex offender, took the girl in February 2005 from her bedroom to his nearby trailer in Homasassa. Her body was found some three weeks later in a grave about 150 yards from her home in the Citrus County community.

The bill unanimously cleared the House Budget and Policy Council after lawmakers and the audience gave Lunsford a standing ovation. It next will go to the House floor after the Legislature convenes its regular annual session in March. An identical Senate bill (SB 496) has not yet had a committee hearing.

The measure adds the harsher penalty to the Jessica Lunsford Act lawmakers passed in 2005.

It includes tougher penalties for sex crimes against children and requires lifetime electronic monitoring for sex offenders who target children once released from prison. Another provision requires fingerprinting and background checks for contractors, vendors, sports referees and others who regularly go onto school property. Those convicted of certain crimes are barred from schools and their grounds.

The existing law already requires a minimum sentence of 25 years in prison and permits a maximum of life for a first or subsequent offense for intentionally touching the breasts, general area of buttocks of a child in a lewd or lascivious manner.

Lunsford said many victims are psychologically scarred by such crimes.

"Which child has it the worst, one that survives or the one that dies?" he said. "No one will every hurt my daughter again. ... What about these kids who survive?"

The bill's sponsor, Rep. Dick Kravitz, R-Jacksonville, called child molesters "subhuman" and research has shown they cannot be cured because they have a natural desire for children.

"If that's your natural sex drive you're never ever going to stop offending," he said.

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Lunsford's Killer Dies Of Natural Causes..

John Evander Couey, a convicted sex offender awaiting execution for kidnapping, raping and burying 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford alive in 2005, died of natural causes Wednesday.

Couey, 51, had been ill for some time and died in a Jacksonville hospital, said Department of Corrections spokeswoman Gretl Plessinger.

"It was not a surprise," she said.

Plessinger declined to provide any specifics, citing a federal law protecting the privacy of hospital patients.

Jessica's grandmother, Ruth Lunsford, 77, said in a telephone interview that she couldn't feel bad about Couey's death.

"He murdered my granddaughter. He didn't show any mercy to my granddaughter," she said. "God took control of it. He took him out of this world. ... I'm not crying, honey. If my legs and feet would hold up, I'd go out and shout all over Citrus County."

The crime prompted many states to pass laws named for Jessica that impose restrictions on sex offenders, including tougher penalties and registration requirements. Florida's version also bans them and others convicted of serious crimes from school grounds.

Couey died just over a month before the Florida Supreme Court was scheduled to hear his automatic appeal. He had an IQ of 78, slightly above the level generally considered mentally disabled, but the judge rejected an argument by his lawyer that he couldn't legally be executed.

Couey spent much of his 2007 trial, which was moved to Miami because of publicity about the case, drawing in coloring books. He looked straight ahead as Circuit Judge Ric Howard told him he should be executed.

Jessica's father, Mark Lunsford, teared up then as he listened to the judge read a detailed history of the case. Outside court, he had a message for Couey: "Skip all these appeals. Take your punishment. Stand up and be a man."

Couey took Jessica from her bedroom to his nearby trailer in February 2005, triggering a massive search. The third-grader's body was found about three weeks later in a grave in Couey's yard, only about 150 yards from her home.

Couey's confession was thrown out as evidence because he did not have a lawyer present. Jail guards and investigators testified he repeatedly admitted details of the slaying but said he hadn't meant to kill the girl.

Prosecutors also introduced overwhelming physical evidence, including fingerprints and DNA.

Jessica's body was found wrapped in two garbage bags under a foot of dirt.

Couey previously had been convicted of exposing himself to a 5-year-old girl in 1991. His criminal record also included 24 burglary arrests and carrying a concealed weapon.

http://www.wftv.com/news/21162146/detai ... 0109302009