Politics & Government

'Caylee's Law' Petition Takes Off in Wake of Casey Anthony Verdict

A law proposed by an Oklahoma mother of two would make it a felony to fail to report a child that has gone missing. The grassroots effort has collected more than 150,00 signatures in less than 24 hours.

Outrage over the not-guilty verdict in the Casey Anthony murder trial has spurred an Oklahoma mother of two to gather more than 150,000 signatures for a law that would make it a federal crime to fail to report a child missing.

Michelle Crowder of Durant, Oklahoma, thought that Anthony would at least be charged with obstruction of justice for waiting 31 days to report her 2-year-old daughter, Caylee, missing. As a result, she logged on to the social activism website Change.org and wrote a petition for Caylee's Law, seeking to make it a felony when parents or guardians fail to report that a child has gone missing.

In less than 24 hours, the petition has garnered more than 120,000 signatures, and Crowder has been inundated with offers from legislators wanting to carry the bill as well as interview requests from Time magazine and CNN.

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“I am a nobody, just an average person," the unemployed retail worker said. "I have never done anything like this before. I saw the verdict, and I was just appalled.

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“It started with a Facebook post, and after a half-hour of seeing it, everybody agreed with it but nobody was doing anything ... so I decided to write a petition on change.org.”

Never in the site’s history has a petition received this kind of reaction, said Brian Purchia, director of communications for Change.org

“She had been following the story like millions of Americans and people oversees, and when the ruling came down, she was upset and wanted to do something about it,” Purchia said. “The response has been amazing. About 5,000 people an hour are signing it.”

According to Purchia, several legislators have contacted Change.org with their interest in sponsoring the bill, including Oklahoma State Senator Greg Treat, Bradley Jones Jr. of Massachusetts and Bill Hager of Florida.

According to the Orange County District Attorney's Office, California has no law requiring guardians to notify authorities when their child is killed or goes missing.

Crowder’s petition is simple:

“I'm writing to propose that a new law be put into effect making it a felony for a parent, legal guardian, or caretaker to not notify law enforcement of the death of their child, accidental or otherwise, within 1 hour of said death being discovered. This way there will be no more cases like Casey Anthony's in the courts, and no more innocent children will have to go without justice. Also, make it a felony for a parent, legal guardian, or caretaker to not notify law enforcement of the disappearance of a child within 24 hours, so proper steps can be taken to find that child before it's too late,” wrote Crowder. “The case of Caylee Anthony was tragic, and there is no reason for another case like this one to hit the courts. Let's do what is necessary to prevent another case like this from happening.”

On Tuesday, Anthony was acquitted of first-degree murder, aggravated child abuse and aggravated manslaughter of a child. The jury did convict her on four misdemeanor counts of providing false information to law enforcement officers. Today she was sentenced to four years for lying to police. Authorities expect Anthony to be released this week for time already served.

Here is the petition for Caylee's Law.


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