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Lawmakers in 16 States Propose Caylee’s Law Amid Outrage Over Verdict

By Ryan Schill | July 13, 2011

Lawmakers in 16 states have proposed a so-called Caylee’s Law to prosecute parents who do not report their child missing quickly enough. The proposals come as a response to public outrage over the acquittal of Casey Anthony in the death of her 2-year-old daughter. An online petition calling for the law has received well over 1 million signatures.

The new measure would make it a felony to wait to report a missing child for more than 24 hours. It would also make it a felony to wait to report the death of a child for more than an hour.

Not everyone thinks the law is necessary.

“The proposal seems like a knee-jerk overreaction to a very sad situation,” Denver attorney Dan Recht said of the proposal in Colorado in an interview with KDVR. He added that it was “crazy” to make it a felony to fail to notify the authorities in one hour.

States considering similar laws include Florida, Oklahoma, Georgia and New Jersey among others.

Casey Anthony failed to report the death of her daughter for more than a month, telling friends Caylee was with a nanny. After Anthony’s mother alerted authorities about her missing grandchild, Casey told investigators Caylee was kidnapped by the nanny.

Casey Anthony was convicted on four misdemeanor counts of lying to investigators.

About Ryan Schill

Ryan Schill is the editor of the Juvenile Justice Information Exchange. In 2012 he wrote a comics journalism piece about the ongoing U.S. immigration debate, published in partnership with Cartoon Movement. His 2011 story about a case of misdiagnosed child abuse won first place in the non-deadline writing category of the Society of Professional Journalists Green Eyeshade Awards for Excellence in Journalism. Ryan is completing his MA in professional writing at Kennesaw State University in Georgia, and has a BS in media studies. His research interests include experimental journalism forms, journalism ethics and philosophy, theories of literary journalism and the intersections of social justice and journalism.

2 thoughts on “Lawmakers in 16 States Propose Caylee’s Law Amid Outrage Over Verdict”

Casey Anthony Shirt on October 21, 2011 at 11:06 pm said:

Support Caylee’s Law!
Roberta Gayton on July 13, 2011 at 2:05 pm said:

I am a grandmother of two – 3yrs. & 3mths. I am also a former preschool teacher. I am a supporter of Caylee’s Law; however, I strongly believe other laws need to be in place to protect children BEFORE they go missing or worse, die as a result of a negligent parent/guardian. My experience has taught me that the policies and regulations with the departments of family and children services need to be reevaluated and revised. Too many times I heard the phrase from an intake personel…”unless the child has been abused (with evidence to support the claim), there’s not enough justifiable cause to intervene” WHAT?!?!?!!? Another area where a new law could benefit the safety and wellbeing of children would be to forbid a parent to exclude the other parent’s family based on selfish reasons that are NOT in the best interest of the child. I would love to discuss this more at length with you and look forward to your response.