Community Corner

As Casey Anthony Goes Free, California Introduces Caylee's Law

The law would make it a felony for parents not to report the suspicious death or disappearance of their child.

Three years and a day after her daughter was killed, Casey Anthony was released from jail Saturday, having been acquitted for the murder of her two-year-old daughter Caylee Marie Anthony.

Wherever Casey Anthony settles, chances are that she’ll be living in a state that has Caylee’s law. Legislators from 30 states have pledged to carry a version of he law, which would make it illegal for parents and guardians to fail to report when heir child has been killed or gone missing. On Friday California Assemblywoman Holly Mitchell introduced Assembly Bill 1432, which would make it a felony for a parent or guardian to fail to report a missing or dead child within 24 hours of the death or disappearance if it occurred under suspicious circumstances.

The national movement to create Caylee’s Law began with a online petition written by an Oklahoma mother of two.  Michelle Crowder of Durant drafted the petition and put it on the social activism site Change.org following Anthony’s acquittal, and more than 1.2 million people have already signed it.

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“This has hit a nerve with the American public,” said Brian Purchia, director of communications for Change.org. “There have been hundreds of legislators reaching out to us to carry Caylee’s Law. It’s pretty amazing how quickly this has taken off.”

Channeling the national outrage of the throngs who believe Anthony got away with murder, Caylee’s Law is designed to help find missing children sooner or ensure that police have a chance to investigate the death or disappearance of a child while the evidence is still fresh.

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Citing a lack of evidence, a Florida jury acquitted Casey Anthony earlier this month. Instead she received a four-year prison sentence for lying to investigators about her daughter’s death. She faces no consequences for waiting 31 days before admitting to anyone that Caylee had disappeared.


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