In 1994, Jesse Timmendequas brutally raped and murdered his neighbor Megan Kanka. Jesse Timmendequas had previously been accused of sexually assaulting a five year old girl in 1979, to which he pled guilty, and was given a suspended sentence. Two years later in 1981, Jesse Timmendequas was charged with assaulting a seven year old girl, for which he was found guilty and sentences to serve six years in a New Jersey Adult Diagnostic and Treatment Center. After having brutally raped and murdered his young neighbor Megan Kanka in 1994, Jesse Timmendequas was found guilty of two counts of felony murder, kidnapping and aggravated sexual assault. Jesse Timmendequas was then sentenced to death, but in 2007 the state of New Jersey abolished the death penalty, leaving Jesse Timmendequas with a sentence of life in prison without the opportunity for parole.
Megan’s Law in the State of Florida
Two years after Jesse Temmendequas murdered Megan Kanka, Megan’s Law was passed as an amendment to the 1994 Jacob Wetterling Act. According to Megan’s Law, all states were mandated to provide the public with full access to information about the sex offenders and sex criminals who are living in their community. Thanks to the Megan’s Law and the Jacob Wetterling Act, all sex criminals are now required by Florida state law to register for life as sex offenders. This includes providing their physical appearance traits, finger prints, date of birth, identification information and other personal information. The strict sanctions of these two laws have made a direct impact on sex criminal’s lives. It can affect the sex criminal’s eligibility for employment, their choice of housing, and even their ability to travel outside of the state due to their requirement to keep all information of even temporary residences up to date in the registry.
The Negative Effects of Megan’s Law in Florida
Originally, Megan’s Law was put in place to make the community, and the entire country, safer for families with or without children. However, as much as the law has helped, it has some very obvious down falls. Some of the negative effects of Megan’s Law in the state of Florida include a lack of uniformity from town to town, a distinct lack of consistency where information is concerned, a high cost to the people of the state, subsequent violence as a result of sex criminal’s privacy being forfeit, and an increased complaint of a breach of sex criminal privacy.
Megan’s Law Defense in the State of Florida
There are a lot of innocent people that get charged with this crime. So, the first and only thing you should do immediately is call a reputed Florida Megan’s Law defense attorney and mounts a strong defense.
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