Does Georgia Need Caylee’s Law?

Feb 15, 2012 2 Комментарии ›› Дастин

We all remember the horrific tale of the death of Caylee Anthony. And let me be up front, it was a tragic, horrible death and set of circumstance that have led us to the following discussion. And regardless of anyone’s view on the particular issue below, I hope we can try to keep the emotions of that event out of it.

Georgia’s version of Caylee’s Law would say the following:

1. A parent, guardian, or other person supervising the welfare of or having immediate charge or custody of a child under the age of 13летshall maintain contact with or otherwise verify the whereabouts and safety of such child; и the willful, knowing, or criminally negligent failure to report such child as missing to a law enforcement agency if any 18 hour period has expired without making such verification or contact constitutes the offense of failure to report a missing child.
2. A parent, guardian, or other person supervising the welfare of or having immediate charge or custody of a child under the age of 16 лет has a legal responsibility to report the death of such child within 12 hours of  such death either to a law enforcement agency or to the coroner or medical examiner of the county wherein the body is found or the death occurs, and his or her intentional  failure to make such report shall be considered the felony offense of concealing the death of a person 

There are a few issues here to tackle.

Первый, there is the enforcement policy. I would never want the second part of this law to apply to a grief stricken parent. I cannot imagine losing a child – and in the past I have written to defend Rick Santorum from his “нечетный” behavior resulting in the loss of his child. I cannot imagine the grief a parent must feel when a child dies, but I could see a parent literally going into shock over the loss of their child. And while in a perfect world I would want to parent to call the authorities immediately, I can envision a grieving mother crying for hours. Maybe the first person they contact isn’t the police, but their spouse, their parents, и т.д.. I’m not saying that section of the bill is terrible, there may be parents that are legitimately hiding the death of a child – однако, I think the enforcement of the bill needs some flexibility.

Второй, what if a Parents doesn’t know about the death of their child for more than 12 hours. The law indicates that the death should be reported within 12 hours of suchчасовh; однако, a parent is only required to “check in” under part one of the law every 18 hours. If a child dies and the parents find out about it at hour 18, they have already broken the second section of the law by 6 hours.

Треть, Children lie. I was not the easiest kid to raise – believe it or not, I had a bit of a rebellious streak. There are plenty of times I told my parents I was going one place, but went another. Even if they called to check in, they had no way to verify where I was. I would believe we need to make sure that if the parents are lied to, then they have some type of protection.

Fourth, the science isn’t there, as explained by a Georgia Bureau of Investigation Medical Examiner:

Jamie Downs is the Coastal Regional Medical Examiner for the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, and co-editor of a forthcoming book on forensic ethics about Caylee’s Law. Downs also formerly served on the board of directors for the National Association of Medical Examiners. Contrary to what you may have learned from watching CSI, Downs says, there’s no way for a medical examiner to determine time of death in the sort of narrow window that would be necessary to enforce Caylee’s Law. “I understand that people are outraged, and I understand why they’d want a law like this, but I just don’t think it’s a good idea. I don’t see how you would enforce it,” Downs says. “You just can’t say for certain that a person died an hour and five minutes ago as opposed to 45 minutes ago.”

В конце концов, do we need “responsive laws,” or laws that are created specifically to respond to a single case but then apply to others. There are a few статьи that address these, but the common critique is this:

Laws named after crime victims and dead people are usually a bad idea. They play more to emotion than reason. But they’re disturbingly predictable, especially when they come after the death of a child. So it’s really no surprise that activist Michelle Crowder is now pushing “Caylee’s Law,” a proposed federal bill that would charge parents with a felony if they fail to report a missing child within 24 часов, or if they fail to report the death of a child within an hour. What’s surprising is just how quickly the Change.org petition for Caylee’s Law has gone viral. As of this writing it has more than 700,000 подписи, and is now the most successful campaign in the site’s history. For reasons of constitutionality and practicality, it seems unlikely that Caylee’s Law will ever be realized at the federal level. But according to the AP, at least sixteen state legislatures are now considering some version of the law. That’s troubling.

This is a bad way to make public policy. In an interview with CNN, Crowder concedes that she didn’t consult with a single law enforcement official before coming up with her 24-hour and 1-hour limits. This raises some questions. How did she come up with those cutoffs? Did she consult with any grief counselors to see if there may be innocuous reasons why an innocent person who just witnessed a child’s death might not immediately report it, such as shock, passing out, or some other sort of mental breakdown? Did she consult with a forensic pathologist to see if it’s even possible to pin down the time of death with the sort of precision you’d need to make Caylee’s Law enforceable? Have any of the lawmakers who have proposed or are planning to propose this law actually consulted with anyone with some knowledge of these issues?

So the question becomes, does Georgia need Caylee’s Law? I’m not opposed to the idea of the legislation, I just want to make sure it is well thought out and that the proper experts have been consulted.