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Nebraska state senate votes to limit controversial 'safe haven' law

By Bernard Hibbitts (editor) and University of Pittsburgh School of Law students.

[JURIST] The Nebraska state senate voted Friday to amend its controversial 'safe haven' law, which allows parents to abandon their children at certain locations without fear of prosecution. Friday's amendments reduce the age at which children can be abandoned from 18 years and under to 30 days and under. The bill advanced to final stage Wednesday by a vote of 41-6. Nebraska Governor Dave Heineman signed the bill into law Friday afternoon. The amendments were made in response to the frequent abandonment of teenagers under the law. The director of Nebraska's Department of Children and Family Services has been critical of the law since September, calling it too broad. Of the 35 children abandoned since the law was implemented in July, only six were under the age of 10.. On November 14, Heineman called a special session of the state senate in order to deal with the loophole.

Full post as published by JURIST - The Paper Chase on November 21, 2008 (boomark / email).