From Sentinel staff reports
2:52 PM EDT, August 24, 2007
Convicted sex offender John Evander Couey sentenced today to death in killing of 9-year-old neighbor Jessica Lunsford.
In March, a six-man, six-woman jury recommended after just 75 minutes of deliberation and less than two days of testimony that he be executed for the crimes.
"This is justice for Jessica," her father, Mark Lunsford, a truck driver turned child-protection advocate, said after the recommendation was read in a hushed courtroom, his eyes red from weeping. "The fight continues. We still have to make things tougher. . . . Instead of them stalking our kids, we'll stalk them."
A week earlier, the same jurors unanimously found Couey guilty.
The case prompted tougher sex-offender laws across the nation.
