Scope of sex offender law is broad, court rules

Though an inmate did not go to prison for a sex crime, he can be kept confined under the Ryce Act for past sex offenses, the state's high court rules, 4-3.

TALLAHASSEE - Inmates with violent sexual crimes on their record can be held indefinitely under the state's Jimmy Ryce Act even if the offense that put them in prison was not a sexual one, the Florida Supreme Court ruled Thursday.

The 6-year-old law allows the state to indefinitely detain a violent sexual offender who has finished a prison sentence if courts find the inmate has a "mental abnormality or personality disorder" that makes a repeat of the crime likely.

The court ruled 4-3 in the case of William Hale, who has sex offenses on his record but was in prison for dealing in stolen property when the state went to court to keep him detained under the act.

It doesn't make any difference whether the sex offense that triggers the Jimmy Ryce Act is the latest offense or a more distant crime, Justice Raoul Cantero wrote. He was joined in the majority by Justices Charles Wells, R. Fred Lewis and Kenneth Bell.

In dissent, Chief Justice Barbara Pariente wrote that the intent of the law, named for a 9-year-old boy who was kidnapped, raped and murdered in 1995, is to protect children from "sexually violent predators." She wrote that the risk Hale posed was debatable, describing him as "an individual whose crime of sexual violence is far in the past, whose prior record shows no evidence that he is a danger to young children and whose most recent incarceration subjecting him to civil commitment was for an offense unrelated to sexual violence." Her dissent was supported by Justices Harry Lee Anstead and Peggy Quince.

The state's high court upheld the constitutionality of the law two years ago. About 450 people are confined under the act at the Florida Civil Commitment Center in Arcadia.

In another case involving the Ryce Act, the high court said Thursday that juries do not need to be specifically told that sexual predators facing indefinite commitment have "serious difficulty controlling behavior," because the criteria in the law adequately address that issue.

The issue was raised by the U.S. Supreme Court in a 2002 decision in a Kansas case.

Florida's high court concluded that whoever meets the definition of violent sexual predator in the Ryce Act will also meet the threshold of "serious difficulty controlling behavior" outlined by the U.S. Supreme Court. Juries don't have to be specifically told that is a separate requirement, Cantero wrote for the 4-3 majority.

Wells, Lewis and Bell concurred; Pariente, Anstead and Quince dissented.

Attorney General Charlie Crist said the rulings were good for public safety. Lawyers for the inmates didn't return phone calls.

[Last modified December 24, 2004, 00:22:13]