Thomas Foley: “I read with horror, outrage, and disgust the news accounts of the death of Jesse Lunsford in Florida. Little 9-year- old…”

“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.…”