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Law and Crime
Did You Know a Crime Victim May Have Saved Your Life?
Here's another group to add to our thankful holiday list.
Posted December 8, 2021 Reviewed by Jessica Schrader
Key points
- Once again, a crime victim's loved one is using her pain to make others safer.
- Two proposed laws will make it easier for a child's safety to take precedence in a custody dispute.
- These new bills have a long history of victim-sponsored laws and statutes behind them.
In May 2021, 4-year-old Greyson Kessler was murdered by his father, John Stacey, who shot his son and then killed himself. It was his mother’s worst fear.
Stacey had been tormenting ex-partner Alison Kessler for years. But over the previous month, his behavior (putting a tracker on her car, stalking her, sending her threatening texts and emails) had escalated in response to learning that she and her new boyfriend were expecting.
She had done what she could. She had repeatedly and unsuccessfully tried to get a domestic violence restraining order against her ex for months. At the very least, she was desperate to get an injunction, which would have halted shared visitation until a hearing could be scheduled.
“Never again,” she vows. On Wednesday, Dec. 2, 2021, she got one step closer to helping other kids avoid her son’s fate. Two Florida lawmakers have taken on Kessler’s crusade and introduced Greyson’s Law to their state legislature.
Greyson’s Law
Since her son’s death, Kessler has been lobbying for a law that would allow a judge to temporarily suspend shared custody if one parent is threatening or abusing the other. The family court can then order a new custody assessment to evaluate the potential danger to the child and see if changes need to be made. Before it’s too late.
Sadly, Greyson isn’t the first child to be killed by an avenging, abusive ex. Jacqueline Franchetti lost her 2-year-old daughter, Kyra. Mary Jean Pearle lost her 6- and 9-year-old daughters. And who could forget Josh Powell’s despicable acts, murdering his two young sons right under the nose of a supervising social worker? It’s no coincidence that he acted just as the walls of justice were closing in around him after his wife disappeared.
There have been dozens of preventable murders in which a vengeful parent murdered their child in a twisted effort to punish the other parent or take the child with them in death.
Lost Ones’ Legacies
Alison Kessler is a member of a horrific “club,” a parent of a murdered child. It’s something I can’t even fathom. Like most parents, I suspect, my greatest fear is that one of my children will die before I do; that she or he might die a violent death takes it to a whole new level.
But there are parents who have not only lived through this but also chose to rise like a phoenix from dark ashes to shine the light of protection on others. Amber Alerts. Chelsea’s Law. Polly Klaus’ Three Strikes Law. The Adam Walsh Child and Safety Protection Act. The lives behind these laws were children killed by a predator.
And thousands of other children are safer because of them. Crime victims and/or their families have responsible for pushing legislation through that, law by law, has tightened the loopholes through which predators have slipped. Their activism has resulted in a faster police response when a child goes missing, better tracking of sex offenders, and increased sentences for violent offenders.
It’s not just children who are safer. You and I can breathe a little bit easier, thanks to the activism of victims’ family members.
Adults Are Safer, Too
We have all benefitted from the generosity and activism of surviving family members, often in surprising ways. It may not surprise you that the first anti-stalking laws grew out of the tragic 1989 murder of Rebecca Schaeffer. But you might not realize that the Driver’s Privacy Protection Act, a law prohibiting the DMV from releasing your address without your written consent, also arose from this tragic event.
As a mom to two college daughters, I am especially thankful for the advocacy of Suzanne Lyall’s family. Thanks to their efforts, any missing person under 21 is now considered a missing child. Suzanne’s Law minimizes what used to be considerable delays and confusion in an initial investigation of a missing young adult. Amber Alerts can be sent, missing person posters can be quickly disseminated, the National Crime Information Center can get involved. Prior to this law, reports of missing college students were often not taken seriously, and too many frantic parents were reassured their child was out partying or taking an impromptu school break.
The Bottom Line
Alison Kessler and her supporters are hoping Greyson’s Law will be in the books by the spring of 2022. In Pennsylvania, Kayden’s Law, named for the 7-year-old girl who was murdered by her father in a murder-suicide during an unsupervised court-ordered overnight visit, is weaving its own way through the state court system.
So, this holiday season, I am grateful for those of us who are safe, alive, happy, and healthy. And I am especially grateful to those families who have used their own personal tragedies to help make and keep us that way.
