Predator law to be defended by state

An appeals court struck down the law that publicly labels sex predators. The Attorney General's Office is weighing its options.

©Associated Press
January 17, 2003

TAMPA -- Attorney General Charlie Crist said Thursday his office was still determining how it will challenge an appeals court decision striking down Florida's version of Megan's Law, which publicly identifies "sexual predators."

Meanwhile, Crist's office said it would seek a stay to keep the order from going into effect pending the outcome of appeals.

"I was disturbed" by Wednesday's decision by the 3rd District Court of Appeal, Crist said. "I think it's safe to say that citizens are safer with a law like that in place than they would be if it were not in place."

The appeals court ruled that the Florida Sexual Predator Act is unconstitutional because it does not require a hearing to determine a defendant's actual threat to the community before he is publicly labeled as a sexual predator.

It violates felons' due-process rights because they're stigmatized by being designated as predators on an Internet registry and in newspaper fliers, the ruling said.

Crist, who took office this month, said his staffers were trying to determine the best approach toward getting the law reinstated, whether it be a request for a rehearing or a direct appeal to the Florida Supreme Court.

But he said the state has no plans to take down the Florida Department of Law Enforcement Web site listing the names and addresses of sexual predators.

Gov. Jeb Bush said Thursday the state will continue to enforce the law during appeals.

"We think it is good policy to be able to provide notice (when) people who sexually assaulted people are released from prison," Bush said. "The community needs to be aware of that."

Crist said modification of the law by the Legislature is an option.

The appeals court overturned a Circuit Court decision to have Ferman Carlos Espindola, 23, register as a sexual predator because of his admission of involvement in the sexual battery of a woman in Miami by multiple perpetrators.

Wednesday's ruling affects more than 3,600 felons who have been listed as sexual predators on the FDLE Web site since the agency began enforcing the registry law in 1997. It does not affect almost 28,000 felons who have been designated "sexual offenders," which is not as serious as predator.

Don Ryce, whose 9-year-old son, Jimmy, was abducted after getting off his school bus in a rural Miami suburb and killed by a sexual predator in 1995, called the appeals court's decision "farcical." He said convicted sexual predators get all the due process they're entitled to in the criminal justice system, and don't have a right to conceal their convictions.

"The court is just wandering off in la-la land as far as I'm concerned," Ryce said.

The Florida law that allows the state to hold sexual predators for treatment after prison is known as the Jimmy Ryce Act.

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