Jessica's Dad: "An Eye For An Eye"

A Florida jury took only four hours Wednesday to convict John Couey, a known sex offender, of kidnapping, raping and then killing 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford.

The crime outraged Florida and America, CBS News correspondent Mark Strassmann reports, from her disappearance from her bedroom in February 2005 to her body's discovery three weeks later, buried outside Couey's trailer.

The jury next must decide whether he should get death by injection or life in prison.

"With capital cases, I'm all for the death penalty. It's an eye for an eye," Jessica's father, Mark Lunsford, said Thursday on CBS' The Early Show.

Asked if the verdict provided any peace or solace, Lunsford said, "I think peace would be a good word. I'm not real sure about closure yet. I've not quite figured that one out. I mean what is it and where does it come from?"

After his daughter's death, Mark Lunsford helped push Florida to pass Jessica's Law, mandating longer sentencing and lifetime tracking of child molesters. Other states have also cracked down.

He's now working with the group "Stop Child Predators," which advocates for stricter penalties and an integrated nationwide sex offender registry.

"I can't get my hands on the guy that murdered my daughter so I've made it my job to make the rest of these sexual offenders and predators' lives miserable, as miserable as I can," he told CBS.

Outside the courtroom Wednesday, Lunsford said that he knew "justice would prevail" but that the case wouldn't be complete until the sentence was imposed.

Circuit Judge Richard Howard will ultimately decide whether Couey should be sentenced to death. He is not required to follow the jury's recommendation, but judges give the recommendation great legal weight.

Couey admitted to investigators shortly after his arrest that he committed the crime, but the confession was thrown out because he did not have a lawyer present as he had requested.

The evidence at trial included DNA from Jessica's blood and Couey's semen on a mattress in his bedroom, as well as Jessica's fingerprints in a closet in the trailer.

Jail guards and investigators testified that Couey repeatedly admitted details of the slaying after his arrest and that he insisted he had not meant to kill the third-grader but panicked as police searched for her.

Couey had a record as a sex offender. In 1991, he was arrested on a charge of fondling a child. In 1978, he was accused of grabbing a girl in her bedroom, placing his hand over her mouth and kissing her.

But authorities had not known that Couey was living near the Lunsford home even though he was required to tell them he had moved.

Sentencing is to begin Tuesday. A psychologist testified for the defense that Couey has signs of mental illness and mental retardation, mitigating circumstances that could help spare him the death penalty.