Florida proposes another law named after a child victim
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier on Tuesday announced that he will propose legislation aimed at eliminating judicial discretion in cases involving convicted sexual offenders and violent criminals who remain free on bond following a guilty verdict.
The proposal, known as Missy’s Law, is named after five-year-old Missy Mogle, who was killed last month in Tallahassee by her stepfather, Daniel Spencer, after he had been adjudicated guilty of traveling to meet a minor.
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Oh great! Now politicians will get more taxpayer dollars, punishing everyone else for what Missy’s stepfather did! Ridiculousness!
First off, the judge allowing the accused to remain free pending sentencing is not an abuse of discretion. The law allows it and I’m sure it’s rarely used, especially in Florida.
Second, the guy’s conviction for “travelling to meet a minor” sounds like he got suckered into one of those stupid stings. Those that get sucked into that are seldom raging homicidal pedophiles, despite popular opinion. They’re just idiots.
Third, earlier press releases said that the victim in this case was repeatedly abused by her mother (also arrested and charged). The man was also charged with failure to report the abuse, making it possible that he had nothing to do with abusing the victim other than being in the same house. If the victim was actually killed by her mother, then the man’s pre-sentence release is irrelevant. Regarding the victim’s death, he is only guilty of failing to stop it (perhaps he tried, perhaps not).
Judges, especially in Florida, very rarely use discretion in favor of those accused of sex crime, let alone convicted for them. I’d bet you could count on one hand the number of times a defendant convicted for a sex crime was allowed to remain free pending sentencing on one hand. And if it turns out that the victim was killed by her mother, than this proposal, should it become law, will be just one more in a sea of laws named after victims that would have done absolutely nothing to prevent the tragedy that inspired it had it been in effect.
Moderator.
Every time I try to reply to a post, it kicks me back saying to verify I’m human. Even though this time I made sure to beforehand. Once I’m kicked back, I’m verified but my reply is just another post and not a reply to another’s post.
That might be a browser issue. It’s not a feature of our site.
I believe the statistics on how many children are a victim of sexual abuse of some sort before they turn 18 shows that there is a problem. I believe this was a topic on this site a few years ago. I believe that the legislature tries to act like they’re doing something by passing these laws. The goal is to incarcerate as many people as they can for a long as they can to feed the prison machine they have built. We all know that if some of the money that was spent on incarceration were spent on treatment upon release and the rest on education of families to stop abuse BEFORE it happens, the rate of sex offenses would plummet.
To address this issue on hand, I say, “Can anyone honestly say that he murdered that girl because of his previous crime ?” Really. What if he’d been convicted of larceny and was out on bond when he committed the murder? After reading an article, it appears as if the man has anger control issues, to say the least. In my opinion, the mom bears even more responsibility in the child’s death as she knew the physical abuse was happening.
Unfortunately, any law that is against PFRs is probably gonna pass. I mean, crap, if I get arrested for not having a current tag, I can’t bond out immediately like everyone else. No, I have to wait to see the judge in the morning. Does the judge in the morning ponder whether you are a danger because you are on the registry before he sets bond? No. He just gives you the damn bond you could’ve paid the day before. It’s all about continued harassment and punishment. Which, as you can see by comments from some on this site, a lot of people are for because they simply believe what they’ve read or seen in the news rather than being educated in the truth. This is the true battle we fight, public perception. If we could change that, then the laws would change very quickly afterward.