Casey Anthony Case Prompts Md. Child Death Bill
ANNAPOLIS, Md. (WJZ) -- Casey Anthony's "not guilty" verdict is having an effect in Maryland. One lawmaker says her phones are ringing with demands from Marylanders to do something to prevent similar cases here.
Political reporter Pat Warren has more on plans for a "Caylee Anthony" law.
The prosecution failed to prove its case to the jury.
The mother portrayed as a party girl and accused of suffocating her daughter Caylee with duct tape to get her out of the way of her good time is not guilty of murder, but State Senator Nancy Jacobs thinks something else she did or didn't do should be a crime.
"Not reporting that your child is missing, I mean how often does that happen? Casey should have reported her child was missing," Jacobs said.
She did not report Caylee missing for 31 days, although she was charged with and convicted of lying to investigators.
Jacobs tells WJZ that Marylanders have been calling in outrage.
"We've been getting 30-40 e-mails a day," she said. "And I've been getting them on my personal email too from people who are just up in arms."
Jacobs has pre-filed a bill to make failure to report a child missing or dead a felony in the state of Maryland.
"Evidently there is a national group that is doing this and putting alerts out, going after all of their state legislatures all over the county because they feel like a great injustice has been done," Jacobs said.
You would think that reporting a child missing or deceased would be a reflex action, but as the county is now painfully aware that's not always the case.
Research is underway to determine what laws currently exist that might apply to cases such as Caylee's.
