The law is named after Jessica Lunsford, a young Florida girl who was kidnapped, raped, and murdered in February 2005 by John Couey, a previously convicted sex offender.

Among the key provisions of the law was classifying lewd or lascivious molestation on a person under the age of 12 as a life felony, and a mandatory minimum sentence of 25 years in prison[1] and lifetime electronic monitoring[2] of persons 18 and older convicted of lewd or lascivious molestation against a victim less than 12 years old.

The bill, if passed, would have greatly reduced federal grant money under the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 (42 U.S.C.

§ 3765) to any U.S. State that failed to conform its sex offender registration laws to the following: The bill was introduced by U.S. Republican Congresswoman Ginny Brown-Waite from Florida on April 6, 2005.

They assert that, if the act is deemed to be criminal in nature, it violates the prohibition against ex post facto laws because it imposes an additional punishment, thereby altering the consequences for a crime for which they already have been sentenced."