OLR Report 2012-R-0130 provides (1) a summary of passed or proposed legislation in other states in response to the result of the Caylee Anthony case and (2) policy arguments for and against these measures.
At least 35 states are considering or have considered legislation in response to the highly publicized death of Caylee Anthony, often called “Caylee's Law.” New Jersey so far is the only state to have enacted a version of “Caylee's Law.” The Florida legislature has recently passed legislation that is pending governor approval.
The model statute is named after Caylee Anthony, a Florida toddler whose death became nationwide news. Casey Anthony, Caylee's mother, failed to report her daughter missing for more than a month and the child's body was discovered near the Anthony home several months later. After giving several fabricated explanations, Ms. Anthony admitted that she had known about Caylee's death and disposed of the body. After a high-profile trial, Ms. Anthony was acquitted of 1st degree murder and related felony charges; she was convicted on four misdemeanor counts of providing false information to the police.
The “not guilty” verdict shocked and angered many who had been following the case and produced a groundswell of legislative proposals that would criminalize a parent's failure to report the disappearance or death of a child. The volume of bill filings is partly due to a well-organized, online petition campaign urging legislators to pass Caylee's Law. As of July 2011, it was reported that more than 1.5 million people had signed the petition.
Policymakers are divided in their support of such legislation. Proponents argue that the law is needed to make parents act more responsibly by holding them accountable for failing to report their child missing or dead. Some prosecutors have indicated that such laws would give them another tool to protect vulnerable children.
Opponents contend that the bill is unnecessary because a parent's failure to (1) act to protect the health and safety of his or her child and (2) notify the authorities about a death or the location of a dead body are already crimes in most states. Moreover, some members of law enforcement have warned that ill-considered laws on reporting missing children risk punishing the innocent and tying the police up with investigations of missing child cases where no foul play was suspected.
For more information including, a look at what other states have proposed, read the full report.
