[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 6]
[House]
[Page 7394]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




           TRAGEDIES IN FLORIDA REQUIRE STRENGTHENING OF LAWS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Schwarz of Michigan). Under a previous 
order of the House, the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Foley) is 
recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. FOLEY. Mr. Speaker, I read with horror, outrage, and disgust the 
news accounts of the death of Jesse Lunsford in Florida. Little 9-year-
old Jesse Lunsford was buried alive in garbage bags at the hands of a 
sick, depraved, and despicable John Evander Cooey, a convicted sex 
offender who has admitted to raping and killing God's little angel, 9-
year-old Jesse.
  I am more than troubled by this and other murders, including the 
death of Sarah Lunde, a 13-year-old, again in Florida, killed by David 
Ostott; David Ostott being another convicted rapist, a violent rapist 
convicted in 1997 for violently raping a woman and walking the streets 
in Florida a few short years later.
  What is wrong with our system? We made a Federal case out of Martha 
Stewart recently, and we have ankle bracelets on Martha Stewart's legs 
as she goes around her $20 million mansion in upstate New York. Hardly, 
hardly a threat to anyone in society. But David Ostott, a convicted 
rapist, and John Cooey, a convicted sex offender, are free to roam the 
communities in which our families live and who are subjected to the 
violence and demonic and desperate behavior of these perverted and sick 
individuals.
  The tragedies that have happened in Florida recently are inexcusable. 
The fact that families have to be frightened is a sad commentary on our 
system. I must tell you, Mr. Speaker, I am absolutely determined to 
change the fate of the laws of this Nation. As cochairman with my good 
friend, the gentleman from Alabama (Mr. Cramer), of the Congressional 
Missing and Exploited Children's Caucus, we are working and have been 
working for some time on a fundamental rewrite of the laws governing 
the way we conduct both investigations, hopefully sentencing, as well 
as registries to try to make these issues and these systems more 
effective for our constituents and for our communities.
  We have to get a handle on and our hands around this significant 
problem. We cannot allow another life to be wasted in such a vicious 
and malicious fashion, buried like garbage. We treat our pets better. 
We have had foster kids abused, we have had problems rife throughout 
the system, and it has to stop.
  I am encouraged that so many in Congress and so many in the State 
legislatures who have heard these dramatic cases are working 
aggressively to try to change the laws and to strengthen the laws. We 
have to do more. We can do more. We can do better. I am embarrassed 
beyond belief that these type of people could be wandering the streets.
  There is a 90 percent likelihood of recidivism for sexual crimes 
against children. Ninety percent. That is the standard. That is their 
record. That is the likelihood. Ninety percent. Yet we say that the 
prisons are too crowded and we probably have to let these people out 
early on good behavior. Oftentimes they tell their probation officers 
and the courts that they are sick and they need help; and yet they are 
told, well, you will have to find it somewhere in the mental health 
corridor of your community.
  We expect them to show up. That is another really mind-boggling 
thought here, that we tell these people that have been convicted of 
violently raping women and children that they should show up to a local 
official and register so that they can be on an offender list. That is 
not going to happen, so we have to stop trusting them to show up and 
register.
  As we begin this process, I welcome both sides of the aisle, as I 
mentioned my colleague, the gentleman from Alabama (Mr. Cramer), in 
this debate to try to strengthen and codify into law things that will 
actually work. No more panaceas, no more feel-good solutions, no more 
expectations that these people who commit these crimes repeatedly will 
somehow become models of behavior in their communities. We have to be 
sure that they are monitored. Whether it is through ankle bracelets or 
other means, we will insist that they be followed, that they be 
pursued, and if they violate again that they never be let out of jail 
to harm another individual or innocent citizen.

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