A Florida lawmaker is proposing the harshest penalties – life imprisonment or the death penalty – for those who traffic children under 12 or people with severe mental disabilities.
State Rep. Berny Jacques, R-Seminole, filed the bill, which he says would be a critical tool in Florida’s fight against human trafficking.
It establishes capital sex trafficking as a criminal offense.
Jacques calls trafficking a scourge that is worth taking on. He says he hopes his colleagues will agree.
“It’s not just our children. It’s all those who are at their most vulnerable state," he said. "So, it could be that adult who doesn’t have all of their capacities about them. And yet you’re going to have people prey on those people and traffic them for the purpose of sex. That is wrong, and we need to send a strong message that that will not be permitted here in the Sunshine State.”
Jacques says the bill would be a critical tool in Florida’s fight against human trafficking and would send a strong message.
“This is a common-sense approach," he said. "We are a law-an-order state. We have brought this strong type of punishment to other criminal actors, and so why should those who traffic our children for the purpose of sex be exempt from that?”
The bill (HB 1283) will be considered when the Legislature meets for its annual session beginning Tuesday.
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