A self-described conservative, 1st Circuit Solicitor David Pascoe said he supports a proposed law that would make some repeat rapists who assault young children eligible for the death penalty.

But Pascoe, along with some attorneys and victim advocates, said other legal tools would benefit prosecutors and survivors more by making it easier to prosecute sex offenders and keep them in jail.

The Sex Offender Accountability Act, also known as Jessica's Law, would make offenders eligible for the death penalty when convicted a second time of first-degree criminal sexual conduct with children younger than 11; the current penalty is life without parole. Among other proposed changes is increasing the range of penalties for first-degree criminal sexual conduct from 0 to 30 years to 25 years to life.

"I'm definitely in favor of capital punishment for second-time offenders, I'm just not sure if it will pass constitutional muster," Pascoe said. "Why don't we pass laws that we know right now are constitutionally OK?"

Foremost among the changes he supports is mandatory prison time similar to what is under discussion. There is no mandatory minimum sentence for sexual assaults in South Carolina.

"If you break into someone's home tonight, (you face) a mandatory minimum of 15 years" in prison, Pascoe said. "If you can get it for a burglary, why couldn't you get it for criminal sexual conduct?"

Not everyone agrees. Vicki Bourus, director of the state Coalition Against Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault, said long minimum sentences might make it harder for prosecutors to get guilty pleas.

Bourus said the organization also philosophically opposes capital punishment, including the provision in the pending legislation.

"It seems like closing the barn door after the horse is out," she said.

Investing more in treatment and counseling would be more beneficial, Bourus said. Those methods generally have a higher success rate with juvenile sex offenders than with adults, she said.

"It's almost nonexistent in prison," she said. "There are some folks who will respond to treatment."

Laura Hudson, public policy coordinator for the South Carolina Victim Assistance Network, strongly disagrees. The most treatment and counseling can offer is helping sex offenders "manage their urges," according to studies she has seen.

"Frankly, as a grandmother of 12, I don't want anybody with a managed urge to live next to me, and I think the general public feels that way as well," Hudson said.

Before worrying about meting out tougher penalties to sex offenders, the state should think about convicting them in the first place, said Assistant 9th Circuit Solicitor Debbie Herring-Lash.

"We have a hard time getting convictions," she said. "All of the new penalties assume there's a conviction. And that would be great. But that's a big assumption."

Letting juries know about similar crimes in a defendant's past might help prosecutors' success rate, she said. Prosecutors in most other states can bring up prior bad acts defendants have committed ? sometimes even sexual misconduct allegations for which they weren't convicted. South Carolina prosecutors are much more limited in what they can show the jury.

Herring-Lash, Pascoe and others said this is important because rapists are much more likely to offend again than those who commit other types of crimes.

Attorney General Henry McMaster will speak today to the House Criminal Laws subcommittee in support of the Sex Offender Accountability Act. The subcommittee includes Reps. Seth Whipper, D-North Charleston, and Jim Merrill, R-Daniel Island.

McMaster's spokesman Trey Walker said the death penalty would be a strong deterrent.

"That is the number one weapon that the state has to deter these deviant monsters from hurting our children," Walker said.

The decision to pursue capital punishment would depend on the solicitor.

Some wonder if the U.S. Supreme Court would uphold a law giving the death penalty for a crime that hasn't involved a death. McMaster thinks it will, Walker said. The court has found capital punishment unconstitutional in rape cases where the survivor is an adult, but it hasn't been put to the test in a cases with child victims, he said.

"This type of behavior is abominable and is the worst thing that a human being can do to a child," Walker said. "Therefore, it deserves the most extreme of consequences."

Reach Noah Haglund at 937-5550 or nhaglund@postandcourier.com.