What do you think of "Caylee's Law"?

I don't see any use in it, except to punish parents who someone thinks may have gotten away with killing their children.

It's not like we have any shortage of laws on the subject, is it?

There was a pretty high profile case here in Denver about a sweet little girl, Aarone Thompson. Her father (if you can call him that) reported her missing in 2005, but in the course of the investigation they found that she hadn't been seen in TWO YEARS prior to the report! They said the "six year old" ran away from home, but the most recent picture they had of her was when she was almost 4.

The children (there were a LOT of them) who were willing to talk at all were only willing to say that they were not to talk about her anymore, as if she never existed. It was clear that her father & his girlfriend killed her but after 2+ years and with the only witnesses (the other children) scared to death to say anything, how could they prove anything?

His trial wasn't for another 4 years. The girlfriend died of a heart attack before she could be convicted of anything. The children finally felt safe enough to testify against him & did so at the trial in 2009. He was convicted of 31 counts of sentenced to 114 years in prison for Aarone's death and multiple other child abuse charges for both her and the other children. They never have found her body.

Would Caylee's law have saved Aarone? No. But it would have given the prosecutors another weapon to convict Aaron Thompson and Shelley Hines (the girlfriend) of something while the murder investigation was carried out. Those two monsters wouldn't have been free for 4 years. Shelley Hines wouldn't have died in her home, she would have died in prison where she belonged. And the case probably would have moved forward sooner because the children would have been safe from them, not living with Shelley and still too scared to tell the truth.

Interesting that the prosecution was able to get a conviction in that case even without the body. But the ones in the Anthony trial couldn't.

I think a Caylee's law would be open to abuse and would end up causing more work for the police with little or no benefit. Especially in brutal custody cases and with chronic run-aways.

The diligent parent would report it anyway. The deceptive parent would probably not see this as a deterrent.

I think the way to address the problem in the Casey Anthony matter is to make lying to the police more punitive.

It sounds like every other "sure wish we had some evidence" law they've ever come up with.

The lack of a conviction was not based on a lack of evidence, so this isn't the type of judicial system reform that is really needed to fix our courts.

Also, there is nothing worse than a law that cannot be enforced, and I would question how you would enforce the 2-hour post-mortem law.

Regarding having to report a child missing, the "within 24 hours" timeline is wrong IMO. I would reword it so that if a child is missing for more than 24hours, you have to report it the next day to authorities. This will avoid too many false alarms from brief runaways, misunderstandings, or custody issues that work themselves out. In this case, it wasn't reported until a month later, and not by the mother.

I think it's a silly law that would serve absolutely no purpose.

I think the law should be case-by-case after autopsy. If the child was sick, or choked themselves that caused death, then the parents shouldn't be penalized. But if the child was clearly murdered.. then yes.

What if there isn't enough evidence to tell - like in Caylee's situation? Isn't that the point of the law?

---Not saying I agree with the law. It has good points and bad points.

good point.. I didn't think of that

Agreed here.

The 2 hour thing would be hard to enforce. And the law would still not deter those set on killing their children.