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Gotta love Georgia

It's not life, but 50 years does have a nice ring to it.



SOURCE

ATLANTA - Republican leaders of the Georgia House unveiled the first draft Wednesday of a proposed new sex offender law that would sharply increase prison time for those convicted of all types of sex crimes - especially those involving children.

Among the proposed new provisions: sex crimes committed against those under 14 years old would be punished by up to 50 years in prison, and offenders deemed to be "sexually dangerous predators" would wear electronic monitoring devices for the rest of their lives after leaving prison.

"We want it to be the toughest" in the country, said House Majority Leader Jerry Keen, R-St. Simons Island, who presented the bill Wednesday on behalf of the GOP House leadership to the criminal section of the House Judiciary Committee.

"My intent personally is to make it so onerous on those that are convicted of these offenses that when they are paroled and when they are released, they will want to move to another state," he said. "Living in Georgia will be too inconvenient, too expensive and they'll relocate somewhere else."

House Republicans began working on the legislation last spring following the arrest of two sex offenders charged with the unrelated slayings of Jessica Lunsford, 9, and Sarah Lund, 13, in Florida.

"It became evident with the increasing number of cases that were appearing in the news media where young children were being abducted and molested that we had to take a look" at whether Georgia laws were strong enough, Keen said.

The measure would increase the minimum prison time for sex offenses to 10 years, with a minimum 25 years and maximum 50 years for those involving children less than 14 years old.

Probation would not be an option for those convicted of sex crimes, and there would be tougher registration requirements for sex offenders once they were released from prison.

District Attorney Pat Head of Cobb County, who supports the effort, raised one note of caution over the bill, urging lawmakers to take care they don't mandate the same penalty for those guilty of "indiscretion and youthful exuberance" as for confirmed pedophiles.

"There always are cases that come up where mandatory minimum (sentences) doesn't fit the fact situation," he said, arguing some provision should be made to give judges leeway at the recommendation of the district attorney.

The committee will conduct several more meetings before the end of the year. Keen said he hopes to have the bill ready for introduction and early passage when the Legislature meets again in January.

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