HOUSTON (AP) _ Texas Gov. Rick Perry says he will ask the Legislature to make all repeat sex offenders eligible to be sentenced to life without parole.
Perry’s announcement on Monday came hours after a Dallas judge overturned the 1993 conviction of a deaf man sent to prison for the rape of a 5-year-old girl. The fingerprints of a convicted sexual predator were later found at the crime scene.
Perry says state law currently allows sexual predators who target children to be sentenced to life in prison without parole. He says he wants that expanded to include those who rape adults.
He says he also wants more paroled rapists hooked up to electronic monitoring devices that allow law enforcement to know if they are too close to a park, a school or other off-limit areas.
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