Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Legal News Blogs -> Lawbeat

Legal News

: Lawbeat

Fetal-homicide followup: enterprising, but a few holes

By Mark Obbie

Kudos to D.C.-based Michael Doyle for asking whether the claims, pro and con, that were made when Congress debated the Unborn Victims of Violence Act have proven true. The answer: No, on both counts. Neither the great benefits nor the horrors that proponents and opponents predicted have happened, Doyle reports. The law -- also known as Laci and Conner's Law for the Laci Peterson case that inspired it -- is pretty much a dud so far. Doyle turns that fact into a story by examining why the law hasn't fulfilled various hopes and fears; looks at a handful of cases where the law might have been used, but hasn't been; and talks to advocates on both sides to ask whether the law has had more subtle effects than a pile of prosecutions. Doyle could have been clearer on a few crucial details: when the law took effect and why prosecutors aren't using the law in particular cases. He also doesn't explain whether his source on the lack of prosecutions, the Bureau of Justice Statistics, is definitive and up to date. But the story generally holds up as a smart, enterprising followup. (Via How Appealing)

Full post as published by Lawbeat on September 02, 2008 (boomark / email).