Florida Senate Panel: Do We Need A Caylee’s Law?

September 20, 2011

In the two months since Orlando resident Casey Anthony was acquitted of murdering her two-year-old daughter, an outraged public has prompted Florida lawmakers to file more than a half-dozen bills related to her case.

Most bills are called “Caylee’s Law” and are designed to stiffen penalties for parents not reporting a child missing within a certain time period. Casey Anthony allegedly did not report her child missing for a month.

The emotionally fraught issue, poised to be in the legislative spotlight, is being examined by a special Senate panel in advance of the session that starts in January. At its first meeting Monday, lawmakers studied whether existing laws already offer ways to punish parents for not reporting missing children.

“In my view, the committee is not here to second-guess the jury,” said Sen. Joe Negron, R-Stuart, chair of the Select Committee on Protecting Florida’s Children. “They rendered what they believe was a fair and just verdict and….I believe their efforts should be respected.”

Negron said the committee’s duty was to figure out if the law was even needed.

Lawmakers are wary of repeating possible missteps made with the Jessica Lunsford Act, a law passed quickly in 2005 after the abduction and killing of nine-year-old Lunsford by a registered sex offender. That law prompted much stricter monitoring and registration of sex offenders.

Negron pointed out that an existing state law on child neglect that prohibits the “failure or omission” to care for a child’s physical and mental health could have been used against Casey Anthony but prosecutors elected not to.

Anthony was not charged with child neglect, Negron said, and said prosecutors probably did that for “valid reasons.”

“Before we start talking about new laws, I want to look at the laws we have,” Negron said.

Sen. Chris Smith, D-Fort Lauderdale, who sits on the special committee to examine policy changes on missing children, said after the verdict “we as legislators, like citizens, were very emotional.”

“Sometimes when we do those things and decide to legislate through emotions we have problems,” Smith said.

Lawmakers have filed at least eight bills related to the Casey Anthony case in Florida, and at least 25 other states have filed or are considering filing similar legislation. Most of the bills in Florida focus on making it a felony to not report a missing child quickly – the bills would require reporting anywhere between 12 and 48 hours after the child goes missing. The bills also make it a felony to not timely report a child’s death.

By Lilly Rockwell
The News Service of Florida

Comments

4 Responses to “Florida Senate Panel: Do We Need A Caylee’s Law?”

  1. 429SCJ on September 21st, 2011 11:56 am

    After the tragic circus, we have just witnessed with this case, I would say YES!

  2. David Huie Green on September 20th, 2011 5:53 pm

    REGARDING:
    “The young lady owes nothing. She was found not guilty.”

    She DOES owe and she was found guilty of lesser crimes. Check the news. Her crime lay in misdirecting the authorities. It isn’t even a punishment, it is a claim for partial reimbursement for the wild goose chase she sent them on.

    From cnn:
    http://articles.cnn.com/2011-09-15/justice/florida.casey.anthony.costs_1_caylee-anthony-cheney-mason-casey-anthony?_s=PM:CRIME

    “Casey Anthony owes authorities just under $98,000 for the costs of investigating the disappearance of her 2-year-old daughter, Caylee, in 2008, a Florida judge ruled Thursday.

    “The decision means prosecutors are set to recoup less than one-fifth of the more than $516,000 that they had sought. The state had argued that if it were not for the 25-year-old Orlando woman’s lies, investigators wouldn’t have had to expend the time and money to find her daughter’s body.

    “They searched for five months, eventually finding Caylee’s skeletal remains in woods less than a mile from her grandparents’ Orlando home.”

    David knowing being found not guilty of one crime
    doesn’t mean not guilty of any and every crime

  3. Kathy on September 20th, 2011 12:05 pm

    The young lady owes nothing. She was found not guilty. They take off the books laws that actually save lives, protection from people with guns, or helmets for motorcyclist, but they will put a law on the books based on hype and emotion.

  4. David Huie Green on September 20th, 2011 10:37 am

    REGARDING:
    “Casey Anthony allegedly did not report her child missing for a month.”

    That was because she WASN’T missing. Casey’s lawyer admits Casey knew where she was. Further, Casey couldn’t be required to report the child dead because that might be self-incrimination if she had a part in that death and the Constitution says people can’t be compelled to testify against themselves.

    Since she lied about not knowing where the child was, she has been hit with a bill for something like $100,000 to defray the cost of searching. Had she said nothing, she wouldn’t even owe that. Methinks she won’t wind up paying it, but at least THAT is legal.

    David for paying for crimes

Written by William Reynolds · Filed Under News