In 2005, a child named Jessica Lunsford was murdered in Florida.  A
registered sex offender later confessed to the crime; he's scheduled
to go on trial in Florida this month.

In response to this tragedy, the Florida legislature passed a set of
laws known informally as "Jessica's Law."  The name of the act in
Florida is "The Jessica Lunsford Act."  These laws increased penalties
for sex-related crimes, tightened registration requirements for sex
offenders, and mandated the sharing of criminal background information
among Florida law enforcement agencies (among other provisions).

I believe that West Virginia has passed a version of Jessica's law in
the last year or two.  I would like to find links to the full text of
West Virginia legislation in some form.  Any of the following sources
would be acceptable:  the bills that were eventally enacted, the slip
laws (that is, the enacted, but not yet codified, laws), or citations
to West Virginia's statutory code. (There may be other sources that I
haven't thought of--as long as the source is well-documented and
reliable, that would be fine.)

I'd be happy to provide any other information you might need.  Thank you!

On June 19, 2006, Joe Manchin, Governor of West Virginia, signed into
law House Bill 101, also known as the Child Protection Act of 2006.

"Governor Signs Child Protection Act of 2006 Into Law 
 Jun 19, 2006
CHARLESTON, W.Va. - Gov. Joe Manchin today signed into law House
[Bill] 101, the Child Protection Act of 2006, during a bill signing
ceremony at the State Capitol."

Governor Joe Machin III - West Virginia's 34th Governor
http://www.wvgov.org/FullArticle.cfm?id=1391

You'll find the full text here (warning - extreme legalese ahead!):

West Virginia Legislature: Bill Text, H.B. 101
http://www.legis.state.wv.us/Bill_Text_HTML/2006_SESSIONS/1x/BILLS/hb101%20ENR.htm

This was an interesting (if roundabout) search project. I began by
finding the name of West Virginia's Governor. I then used the
governor's surname and the name of the state in combination with
several phrases that I thought might appear in an article describing
the passage of the law. This was the search string that gave me the
information leading to the answer:

Google Web Search: "west virginia" manchin "child protection"
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22west+virginia%22+manchin+%22child+protection%22

Once I had identifying information on the bill, I tracked it down with
another Google search:

Google Web Search: "west virginia" hb101 OR "h b 101" OR "house bill 101"
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22west+virginia%22+hb101+OR+%22h+b+101%22+OR+%22house+bill+101%22

Although Jessica Lunsford's name is not included in the text of the
law, Jessica was clearly on the minds of some of the legislators who
sponsored the bill:

"I am so sorry for your loss. Only God can heal your pain. But we can
certainly make it more difficult for predators in the future. In
response to your situation, I, along with several other Delegates,
have asked that a law similar to Jessica's law be drafted for
introduction in the next session...Delegate Patrick Lane

I echo Delegate Patrick Lane's condolences and am equally sorry for
your loss. As the lead sponsor of the WV Child Protection Act of 2006
that will be introduced in the legislative session this January, along
with Delegate Lane, and others, we want to send a clear message that
sexual predators will not be tolerated in West Virginia... Delegate
Kelli Sobonya"

Cached from West Virginians Against Abuse website
http://72.14.203.104/search?q=cache:QCuxofEUmkIJ:tiptopwebsite.com/websites/index.php%3Fusername%3Dwestvirginiansagainstabuse%26page%3D8

I hope this is helpful! Please let me know if anything is in need of clarification.

Best regards,
pinkfreud

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Clarification of Answer by pinkfreud-ga on 20 Jul 2006 14:19 PDT

I see that I spelled Governor Manchin's name incorrectly when I
labeled the link to his website. I apologize for the error.

~pinkfreud

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Request for Answer Clarification by celina02446-ga on 21 Jul 2006 12:29 PDT

Hello, pinkfreud-ga,

Thank you so much for answering my question on Jessica's Law in West
Virginia.  I really appreciate your help.  This is exactly what I
needed--absolutely terrific.

Best,
celina02446-ga

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Clarification of Answer by pinkfreud-ga on 21 Jul 2006 12:34 PDT

Thank you very much for the kind words, the five stars, and the nice tip!

~pinkfreud

Thorough, complete, thoughtful, well-documented answer.  pinkfreud-ga
found exactly what I needed--and, in fact, seemed to understand what I
needed even better than I did.