Utah's sex-crime laws touted

Utah laws are superior to the so-called Jessica's Law that promises mandatory minimum sentences and electronic monitoring of sex offenders.

That's what some Utah lawmakers and criminal justice officials concluded at a hearing Wednesday of the state Legislature's Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Interim Committee.

"Utah's laws are tougher than what Jessica's Law really is," Rep. Paul Ray, R-Clearfield, said.

In a side-by-side comparison, the Office of Legislative Research and General Counsel compared Jessica's Law to existing Utah law. Some things that Florida has enacted appear to be better, while others appear to be behind Utah. For example, Florida requires sex offenders to have an ID card if they have no driver's license. Utah does not. Failure to register on the sex offender registry is a 90-day jail sentence in Utah. Florida has no incarceration, although failure to register is a third-degree felony.

The biggest issue and the one that generated the most debate involved minimum mandatory sentences for convicted sex offenders. Jessica's Law requires a minimum 25-year prison sentence for a sex crime involving children. Utah uses indeterminate sentencing.

"We really have the privilege of having a system that is flexible to meet our particular needs," said Tom Patterson of the Utah Sentencing Commission. "Not only society's need to be protected, but the offender's needs, the victim's needs and all of those people who are players in this system."

Patterson said the system is reliant on good judges and the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole to keep child sex offenders locked up. Utah abandoned minimum mandatory sentences in 1996.

Prosecutors told lawmakers that the indeterminate sentencing spares child victims the pain of a trial and can be used as a bargaining chip with a perpetrator who is looking at five years and ignores the possibility of life in prison. A minimum 25 years could mean a plea deal is rejected by a sex offender.

"We try to be as hard as we can on sex offenders," said Paul Parker of the Salt Lake District Attorney's Office. "The appearance is the stronger a penalty, the less likely they are to settle."

Utah has been criticized for not adopting a Jessica's Law, but Patterson urged lawmakers not to bow down to it.

"We're not going to have a knee jerk reaction when a television commentator says we're soft on crime," he said, referring to Fox News commentator Bill O'Reilly, who has blasted Utah for not adopting the law.

Jessica's Law is named for 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford, who was kidnapped, raped and murdered in Florida in 2005. Convicted sex offender John Evander Couey, 47, confessed to the crime.

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E-mail: bwinslow@desnews.com