Protect Our Children. Hold Drug Dealers/Suppliers Accountable. (The Summer\'s Law Initiative)
If a minor dies as a result of being provided a controlled substance by an adult the adult should be charged with MURDER
My 16 year old daughter, Summer Williams, passed away on February 5, 2012. While spending the night at a 17 year old female friend's house Summer was introduced to a very dangerous and frequently lethal drug named Opana, by the 18 year old boyfriend of that friend that resulted in her death that night. The Grand Jury indicted four adults on charges ranging from Unlawful transaction with a minor 1st degree to solicitation to tampering with physical evidence. They included some felony drug charges of Trafficking in a controlled substance and conspiracy to trafficking in a controlled substance. It is now 1 week away from 2 years since Summer's death. One of the four adults has since been offered a plea deal from the Commonwealth of Kentucky and subsequently entered a guilty plea to the charge of Reckless homicide, with a maximum sentence of 5 years, and Selling a controlled substance, with a maximum 5 year sentence. He was sentenced to 10 yrs and an additional 2 years for an unrelated charge for a crime he committed shortly after Summer's death. The remaining three defendants will likely be offered plea deals.
My concern is that the punishment doesn't fit the crime. A 16 year old child died.
The rule of felony murder is a legal doctrine in some common law jurisdictions that broadens the crime of murder in two ways. First, when an offender kills accidentally or without specific intent to kill in the commission of a felony, the offender can be charged with murder. Second, it makes any participant in such a felony criminally liable for any deaths that occur during or in furtherance of that felony. This rule has been abolished in some states including Kentucky.
My proposal is that we enact a similar law that protects all minors by deterring drug dealers and other adults from providing or selling illegal controlled substances to minors through severe punishment. I propose that we enact a law similar to the felony-murder rule that deals with adults that provide or facilitate to provide minors with controlled substances that result in death.
Drug use and abuse is an epidemic in this country and all of our children are at risk. I know legislators are working diligently to combat this problem and I believe aside from holding seminars in schools about drugs and cracking down on doctors that supply pill-mills with controlled substances that we should also focus on punishing the adults who are caught providing these drugs to minors with very harsh punishments. It is absolutely unacceptable to for an adult being caught to be given the opportunity to re-offend. I believe we can save millions of children by deterring this activity by enacting laws with harsh punishment.
My concern is that the punishment doesn't fit the crime. A 16 year old child died.
The rule of felony murder is a legal doctrine in some common law jurisdictions that broadens the crime of murder in two ways. First, when an offender kills accidentally or without specific intent to kill in the commission of a felony, the offender can be charged with murder. Second, it makes any participant in such a felony criminally liable for any deaths that occur during or in furtherance of that felony. This rule has been abolished in some states including Kentucky.
My proposal is that we enact a similar law that protects all minors by deterring drug dealers and other adults from providing or selling illegal controlled substances to minors through severe punishment. I propose that we enact a law similar to the felony-murder rule that deals with adults that provide or facilitate to provide minors with controlled substances that result in death.
Drug use and abuse is an epidemic in this country and all of our children are at risk. I know legislators are working diligently to combat this problem and I believe aside from holding seminars in schools about drugs and cracking down on doctors that supply pill-mills with controlled substances that we should also focus on punishing the adults who are caught providing these drugs to minors with very harsh punishments. It is absolutely unacceptable to for an adult being caught to be given the opportunity to re-offend. I believe we can save millions of children by deterring this activity by enacting laws with harsh punishment.
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