Caylee’s Law in Focus After Casey Anthony Gets Off (Almost) Scot-Free

Casey Anthony was found not guilty of murdering her two-year-old daughter, Caylee, on Tuesday. And while it stirred controversy across the nation, it also spurred two lawmakers to create a bill in the young girl's name, The Miami Herald reported.

Two Florida lawmakers have filed a bill called Caylee's Law, which would upgrade a misdemeanor to a felony for failure to report a child missing or a child's death within a certain amount of time. Current law has failing to report a missing person as a misdemeanor.

The bill HB37, sponsored by Rep. Jose Felix Diaz, R-Miami, came a day after a different lawmaker, Rep. Bill Hager, R-Boca Raton, announced his own plans to file a bill also called Caylee's Law.

Hager's bill would also make it a felony to not report a missing child in a timely manner, but it has not been officially filed.

Two-year-old Caylee was reported missing by her mother, Casey, in July 2008, 31 days after she had gone missing. Her body was found in December.

Rep. Scott Plakon, R-Longwood, co-sponsor of Caylee's Law, said he joined forces with Diaz after constituents send numerous emails pleading him to alter the state law.

For her to be able to go out and party for 31 days and mislead law enforcement, that seems wrong, Plakon said. This bill says it should be illegal for a caretaker to do such a thing.

Plakon said that while the bill would not impact Anthony, it does create stiffer penalties for any similar situations that may arise in the future. Had a law like this been in place, she would have a felony right now, Plakon said.

The three-page bill makes it a felony for a parent or other caregiver to not report a child under the age of 12 as missing after a 48-hour period. It also makes it a felony to not report a child's death or location of a child's corpse to police within two hours of the death.