Posted on 07/08/2011 2:31:45 PM PDT by ladyellen
The trial and acquittal of Casey Anthony has spawned a slew of proposed laws named after her 2-year-old daughter Caylee, as lawmakers and their constituents try to extract some measure of reform out of a case that ended -- for many onlookers -- with frustration.
The state proposals, which sprung up after an Oklahoma woman started an online petition drive Tuesday, would generally make it a felony for a parent not to report the death or disappearance of his or her child in a certain period of time.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Let’s not be stupid. It falls under negligence.
--Atlas Shrugged, by Ayn Rand
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Swell. More laws. Just what we needed.
So what is it going to be...a law against incompetent prosecutors???
mixed feelings on the bill, as these knee-jerk reaction bills generally are unnecessary at best and have damaging effects at worst.
In this case, the idea seems to make sense. Hold a parent responsible for their child and provide a stiff punishment if they do what Anthony did and cover up a disappearance. It does seem to be a clear case for a negligence charge, but Anthony did not get any punishment for this act. If anything, the current laws may just need an upgrade to deal with vile acts like this and make it cut and dry in court. The brand new law borders on nanny-statism.
the prosecutors did all they could with the evidence they had. The jury just ignored what they were shown because the liked the made-up stories about sexual abuse and kids drowning that the defense described in the opening statements, despite having nothing to back it up in the actual presentation.
Amen. The “there ought to be a law . . . .” syndrome is responsible for so much of the over-regulated mess we have now.
How are these laws going to be written? Narrowly tailored to the exact situation as Casey Anthony? More likely they’ll be stupidly broad and there will be legitimately grieving parents who could be FELONS because they didn’t file the right paperwork with Big Brother. I don’t want to hear about how that won’t happen because of “prosecutorial discretion”; the upthread quote from Atlas Shrugged is spot on.
If that's true then I guarantee you that she will be back before a court sooner or later for another crime.
Look at O.J.
Look at Rodney King
Look at Alcee Hastings
Look at Dominique Strauss-Kahn
When bad people get away with a crime, they get even more arrogant and out-of-control.
Agreed. We already have a billion laws this whole mess fell under but the prosecutors were stupid and incompetent.
We don’t need more laws.
Florida needs a Dexter.
shouldn’t we have a Terry’s law first?
Or perhaps a John Lennon’s law?
Would this law apply to women who abort their children?
I never followed the trial but, like anybody else that is not living under a rock, I know the basic facts and a friend of mine last night rattled off a laundry list of evidence:
1.) The smell of decomposition noticed by many people with prior experience in such a smell.
2.) The child's hair in the trunk with a "death band" on it
3.) The mother partying after the disappearance. Etc., etc., etc.
It seemed pretty slam-dunk to me.
In your opinion, how was the prosecution able to mess this up?
Was the jury just to squeamish to condemn a pretty face to death? Was a lesser charge an option for the jury?
Too much CSI and tv crap that these jurors expected in REAL LIFE!!
There was NO cause of death in the Stacy Peterson case either, but Scott is sitting on death row! (and that is California)!!
At least this bill would stop these killers from dumping the body til there is NO evidence left to find cause of death!!!!
I forget who, but someone (Instapundit?) suggested a while back that as a rule of thumb, any law named after a child is probably a bad law.
Flabbergasted. He got it right. Now we’ve got one more piece of useless legislation.
Great quote! (And they’re not all that abundant from Rand.)
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