Journal article
Making the Case for Megan's Law: A Study in Legislative Rhetoric
Indiana Law Journal, Vol.76, pp.315-366
01 Apr 2001
Featured in Collection : UN Sustainable Development Goals @ Drexel
Abstract
On July 29, 1994, Jesse Timmendequas raped and murdered his neighbor, seven-year-old Megan Kanka. Timmendequas had two prior convictions for sexual offenses against children. The story of this crime, which occurred in a small central New Jersey community, received national attention. Within days of Megan's death, Megan's parents, Richard and Maureen Kanka, began a campaign to pressure the New Jersey legislature to adopt a sex-offender community-notification law in her memory. Their plea was personal and explicitly tied to the death of their daughter. "This was God's way of using Megan as a tool to make sure this never happens again," Maureen Kanka proclaimed. The state legislature responded quickly and on October 31, 1994, New Jersey Governor Christine Todd Whitman signed Megan's Law. The call for new sex-offender registration and community-notification laws spread across the nation, motivated by the constant recitation of Megan's tragic demise. Although many states adopted these provisions of their own accord, in 1994 the U.S. Congress passed legislation effectively requiring every state to establish a system for registering certain offenders. In 1996 Congress raised its demands, requiring every state to provide for community notification as well. Under pressure from both Congress and public opinion, every state has now adopted some version of Megan's Law. 1Support for Megan's Law within both Congress and state legislatures was overwhelming. When community notification came up for discussion in the U.S. House of Representatives, for instance, ...
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Details
- Title
- Making the Case for Megan's Law: A Study in Legislative Rhetoric
- Creators
- Daniel M. Filler - Drexel University, Thomas R. Kline School of Law
- Publication Details
- Indiana Law Journal, Vol.76, pp.315-366
- Publisher
- Trustees of Indiana University Indiana Law Journal
- Number of pages
- 52
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Thomas R. Kline School of Law
- Identifiers
- 991022040965904721
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