Caylee’s Law in Pennsylvania?

I receive lots of emails from constituents who sign petitions on the Internet, advocating for or against a certain policy or proposal, but the recent push to enact Caylee’s Law in Pennsylvania is one of the most intense efforts I have ever seen.

The idea is simple:

In the aftermath and subsequent public outrage regarding the verdict in the Casey Anthony trial, there is a push to have legislation in Pennsylvania that would oblige parents and guardians to promptly report the death or disappearance of a child. Anyone who violates Caylee’s Law would be charged with a felony.

The online petition website www.change.org helped the campaign go viral. The petition collected an astonishing 1.25 million signatures in only 14 days. More than 600 of those signatures came from my constituents in the 46^th Legislative District.

Caylee's Law will be introduced as a bill in Pennsylvania very soon, and I have signed on as a co-sponsor of the legislation. I serve on the House Judiciary Committee—which is the committee it will almost certainly be referred to—and I intend to give the legislation my full support.

Critics say the facts of the Casey Anthony case were so bizarre that targeting the same scenario assuming it would happen again makes little sense. There is also a compelling argument against tailoring statewide or nationwide laws based on public outrage over a high-profile court case, so Caylee’s Law may face an uphill battle in order to become law.

You may take comfort in knowing that there are already laws on the books in Pennsylvania that could be used in a scenario in which a parent fails to report the disappearance or death of a child. These existing laws may make new proposals largely unnecessary.

Under current Pennsylvania law, “[a] person is guilty of a misdemeanor of the first degree if he or she endeavors privately, either alone or by the procurement of others, to conceal the death of his or her child, so that it may not come to light, whether it was born dead or alive or whether it was murdered or not.” It is a misdemeanor of the first degree, which carries a sentence of not more than five years.

There is also the endangering-the-welfare-of-a-child statute, which could be applied in the event of a Casey Anthony-type situation in which someone doesn’t report the child missing. 

That law states “A parent, guardian or other person supervising the welfare of a child under 18 years of age, or a person that employs or supervises such a person, commits an offense if he knowingly endangers the welfare of the child by violating a duty of care, protection or support.” The penalty for violation of this section is a misdemeanor of the first degree—not more than five years (unless there’s a course of conduct that results in a felony).

In my personal opinion, the real problem with the Casey Anthony trial was the prosecutors did not charge her with the proper crime, which really made it difficult for the jury to make a proper decision.

Had the prosecution gone for something less than a murder charge, they almost certainly would have gotten a conviction and a very severe sentence. Because the only option the jury had was whether she actually murdered Caylee or not, their hands were largely tied by the prosecution.

In any event, it is a shame that Casey Anthony was able to walk freely out of that courtroom. I hope and pray we never have a similar situation in Pennsylvania, but if we do, we need to have laws in place to make sure the truly guilty are brought to justice.