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TALLAHASSEE - Ex-convicts can be held in custody while the state appeals judges' decisions against detaining them as violent sexual offenders under the Jimmy Ryce Act, the Florida Supreme Court decided Thursday.
The justices, however, gave judges discretion to free the ex-convicts during such appeals if the state fails to scrupulously abide by the law, such as by causing needless delays.
The Ryce Act is named for a 9-year-old Miami-Dade County boy who was raped and murdered in 1995. It lets the state hold violent sexual offenders indefinitely after their sentences are complete for treatment and the public's protection. But courts first must find they are likely to repeat such crimes due to mental or personality disorders. Those decisions then can be appealed.
Two of the seven justices, Charles Wells and Kenneth Bell, said in a separate opinion that Thursday's ruling simply should have permitted holding former inmates during those appeals without qualification.
The justices, however, were unanimous in concluding that as a civil - rather than criminal - law, the Ryce Act is covered by court rules providing for automatic stays during appeals.
The high court ruled in the case of Frank Mitchell, who was detained while the state appealed a Tallahassee judge's decision against holding him under the Ryce Act because he had not been imprisoned for a sex crime.
The Supreme Court later ruled in another case that such ex-convicts still can be detained under the Ryce Act if they previously had committed sexual offenses, as Mitchell had.