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State Senator Linda Gray told New Times yesterday that she plans to introduce a version of “Caylee’s Law” into the Arizona Legislature.
The proposed law is in response to the light sentence Casey Anthony received after getting acquitted of charges that she murdered her daughter, Caylee.
Because of the general national consensus that the jury got it wrong and Anthony killed the 2-year-old girl, similar laws are being proposed across the country.
Anthony was convicted of four counts of lying to police — all misdemeanors — and given the maximum, one-year sentence for each count. But with time served and good behavior, Anthony was released from jail on Sunday.
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Anthony didn’t report Caylee missing for 31 days. The law Gray plans to propose would make it a felony for a parent to not report their child missing within 24 hours of his or her disappearance.
Gray concedes that “even if Florida had this law [at the time of Caylee’s disappearance] it wouldn’t have made a difference,” but it would have given prosecutors another serious crime with which to charge Anthony, and the possibility of more jail time than the three-plus years she spent locked up while awaiting trial.
The law’s become a bit of a hot topic — some say it’s a waste of time, and “stems from fruitless outrage at a freakish event.” Others argue it could prevent future tragedy, or at least create an incentive to report children missing as soon as possible, which could have aided in the retrieval of valuable forensic evidence that was lost with time in the Anthony case.
We want to know what you think: does Arizona need “Caylee’s Law?”
Cast your vote below.
