Republican State Senator Diane Black wants to make murder involving rape or sexual abuse of a minor a first degree offense–meaning the crime could be sentenced with the death penalty in this state.
After a convicted sex-offender kidnapped, raped and then buried alive a nine-year-old in Florida last year, Black reviewed Tennessee’s laws and says there are areas where the state’s laws need to be strengthened.
“One of the things that I found is that we’re actually, we’re creating, we actually have great penalties in some areas than they do in Florida. But what we did so is create that first degree murder category for those who kill a child and there’s sexual activity involved.”
The Florida case has since prompted many states to enact forms of ‘Jessica’s Law,’ named for the murdered girl, that increase penalties, restrict convicted sex-offenders from living within a certain radius of a school, and even force offenders to wear global positioning system devices to track their whereabouts once released from prison.
Black’s bill will also create a category of punishment for inappropriate, non-rape offenses like fondling or sexual battery.
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