Celebrated Cases: The Megan Kanka Murder - Essay Example

Accordingly, using overwhelming evidence, the offender was found guilty of several counts of aggravated sexual assault and felony murder for killing the young girl while committing other atrocities on her. The jury ruled that Timmendequas carried out the crime “purposely” and “out of his conduct”, propping his eligibility for a death penalty. He was sentenced to death, a ruling that was upheld by the Supreme Court of New Jersey on appeal (Scheb, 2010). This Case was the basis for the adoption of Megan’s law.

With all the controversy surrounding it, it requires that the names of sexual offenders and pictures of their faces be distributed to members of a community if such an offender resides among them. The profiles of these offenders are also available in databases accessible by any interested group or persons (Shultz, 2005). The New Jersey legislature was prevailed upon to adopt the Sex Offender Community Notification into law. Eventually, the U.S. Congress cemented legislation that required every State to register certain specified offenses and the offenders.

It subsequently raised the bar for every State to implement community notification. This law had unanimous approval in most States, with some such as Florida not bothering to debate the positives over the negatives of enacting such a law (Siegel, 2011). However, Courts took a more critical assessment of these laws and struck out parts of the provisions. Scholars of law also had varied reactions and criticism. Coming before it was the Weterlling Act enacted by Congress in 1994, stipulating that all offenders charged and convicted with sexual offenses be registered.

The Megan Case provided a platform for the improvement of this Act: Emanating from the huge debate it elicited nationwide, there emerged the policy for mandatory registration of all sex offenders, including related offenses such as false imprisonment and kidnapping. It would not only stop at that, communities were to be notified if and when a known sexual predator or a previous sexual offender moved into a neighborhood. Another law, the Pam Lyncher Sexual Offender Tracking and Identification Act of 1996 facilitated the creation of a federal database for tracking already registered sexual offenders.

Megan’s Law set the precedent for sex-offense laws in other States: they include North Carolina’s Amy Jackson Law, Indiana’s Zachary’s Law, and Texas’ Ashley’s Law (Neumann, 2010). It led to revisions in policies that ensured the rights to privacy and security of every citizen as would be cited by defense attorneys handling such cases. Child Victimization became a more serious offense with Megan’s law entrenched in the Court System. In its entirety, this case highlighted the role of legislative debate in the instigation and formulation of new laws.