MIAMI---It only took jurors about an hour Wednesday to decide that the convicted killer of 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford should die.

A Florida jury voted 10-2 in favor of the death penalty for John Couey, 48, convicted last week of kidnapping, raping and murdering the girl, burying her alive in two black plastic trash bags.

Couey, a convicted sex offender, had killed the child after he snatched her from her bedroom in 2005 about 150 years from a trailer where he was living. She was suffocated and was found clutching a purple stuffed dolphin.

Couey's attorneys had asked for mercy, claiming their client was mentally retarded, ill and had had a troubled childhood. The final decision on whether Couey lives or dies will be made by Circuit Judge Ric Howard next month but it's rare that a judge ignores a jury's recommendation.

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.

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.

In Florida, he Jessica Lunsford Act, which went into effect in September 2005, increased penalties for some sex crimes and strengthened reporting requirement for sex offenders, among other changes.

New York's Jessica's Law provides for up to life sentences for the most heinous sex crimes, those where the perpetrator harmed the victim, threatened the use of a weapon, committed the crime against multiple victims or was previously convicted of a felony sex crime. Adults convicted of serious sex crimes in which the victim is under the age of 13 could spend the rest of their lives in prison, regardless of any other aggravating circumstance.

Mark Lunsford, Jessica's father, said that the sentencing, days before the anniversary of the discovery of the little's body in March 2005, was finally "justice for Jessie".

He said that "we impose the death penalty in many states…but it will never compare to the misery (the crime) causes the victims".

Couey had admitted to investigators after his arrest that he had committed the crime but the confession was inadmissible at trial because although he had requested a lawyer, police questioned him without him having legal counsel.

DNA evidence from Jessica's blood and Couey's semen from a mattress in his bedroom was presented at trial. In addition, her fingerprints were found in a closet in Couey's trailer. Corrections officers and investigators testified during the trial that Couey had admitted killing the child but said he didn't mean to kill her. 3-15-07

© 2007 North Country Gazette