John Couey looked ahead when Judge Ric Howard told him he should be executed for the 2005 kidnapping, rape and death of Jessica Lunsford.

The girl's father, Mark Lunsford, was tearful as he listened to the judge read a detailed history of the case for nearly an hour. He hugged relatives after the sentence was read.

Outside court, Lunsford had a message for Couey: "Skip all these appeals. Take your punishment."

The jury that convicted Couey in March recommended he die for his crimes, but the decision was left to the judge.

A lawyer for Couey (49) argued he could not legally be executed because he was mentally retarded, but Howard brushed aside that claim in a strongly worded ruling earlier this month.

Mentally retarded people cannot be executed under a 2002 US Supreme Court decision.

The jury convicted Couey of taking the girl in February 2005 from her bedroom to his nearby trailer, sparking a massive search.

Her body was found about three weeks after she disappeared in a grave in Couey's garden, about 150 yards from her own home.

Couey, already a convicted sex offender when he committed the crime, was arrested in Georgia and confessed to the killing. That confession was thrown out as evidence because Couey did not have a lawyer present.

Despite the confession being ditched, Couey incriminated himself at other times. Jail guards and investigators testified he repeatedly admitted details of the killing after his arrest, insisting he had not meant to kill the girl but panicked during an intense, nationally publicised police search.

Prosecutors also had overwhelming physical evidence, including DNA from the girl's blood and Couey's semen on a mattress in his room, as well as her fingerprints in a cupboard where investigators said she was hidden.

Couey has a criminal record that includes 24 burglary arrests, carrying a concealed weapon and indecent exposure.

He was deemed a sex offender for exposing himself to a five-yearold girl in 1991.