Keep Utah's sex offender law

Accused child kidnapper, rapist and murderer John Evan Couey would be the last person most Americans would want to catch a break in the legal system. Couey, a 47-year-old convicted sex offender, is accused of abducting, molesting and killing 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford in Florida in 2005. The girl was found kneeling and clutching a stuffed animal, hands bound with speaker wire and fingers poking through the garbage bags in which she was buried alive. Couey confessed to police and a trial was set for July 10.

On Friday, a Florida judge ruled that Couey's confession was inadmissible in court because his requests for legal representation were not granted by sheriff's deputies. In handing down the ruling the judge noted that Couey invoked his rights for counsel "no less than eight times in 46 seconds."

This was a gross violation of a bedrock principle of law. Fortunately, it appears that there is sufficient physical evidence to proceed to trial. Jessica Lunsford deserves justice.

This ruling will undoubtedly stir more emotion in this case, which has already brought about laws that dramatically enhance penalties for some sex offenders who target children, sometimes requiring lifetime electronic monitoring.

Emotion should not fuel these discussions, particularly as they pertain to Utah laws on sex offenders. Recently, a legislative committee compared Utah's laws to Florida's law, which calls for minimum mandatory sentences. Many state lawmakers are convinced that Utah's law is more workable and, for the most part, tougher than Jessica's Law.

In Utah, failing to register on the sex offender registry is a Class A misdemeanor offense punishable by a mandatory 90-day jail sentence. Florida has no mandatory incarceration, although failure to register is a third-degree felony. Under Utah law, sexual offense cannot be expunged from one's criminal record. Florida allows expungements after 30 years and no further violations. However, Florida requires sex offenders to have an ID card if they have no driver's license while Utah's law does not. That may be a place where Utah's law could be adjusted.

Some states have instituted minimum mandatory sentences for sex offenders, something Utah abandoned in 1996 because they afford no flexibility to the system, they are costly, and they deter offenders from undergoing treatment. A broad-ranging sentence gives convicted sex offenders incentive to complete treatment. According to the Utah State Department of Corrections statistics, the rates of recidivism among convicted sex offenders who have completed a treatment program are low. Considering that most of these offenders eventually return to society, it is in everyone's best interest that they undergo therapy.

There are no guarantees, of course.

But there are valid reasons that Utah prosecutors, the Board of Pardons and Parole and prison officials argue on behalf of Utah's laws. Lawmakers need to stick with Utah's laws, in spite of what television commentators will say, because they're workable and in most respects superior to the cookie-cutter approach advocated by the talking heads.