The effort to make Destiny’s Law official in Ohio has encountered yet another roadblock, as its House Bill number expired on the last day of 2014. This is the second time the proposed law’s bill has expired in the Ohio House due to lack of votes or differences of opinion among committee members, but a new bill number is expected to be announced this week. Destiny, now a soft-spoken nine-year-old with a long mane of flowing blonde hair, has captured the attention of Clark County since her injuries eight years ago, and now has garnered national support in her mother’s quest for longer prison terms for violent offenders.
Destiny Shepherd was 16-months-old when her mother’s ex-boyfriend Terrance King slammed the baby’s head into a doorframe, causing skull fractures, bleeding of the brain, and cortical blindness. King served eight years in prison for Destiny’s abuse—the maximum sentence for his crime. King was released just a few months ago in October of 2014, while Destiny’s mother, Randi Shepherd, says her daughter will suffer the results of her injuries for a lifetime. Shepherd said Destiny’s doctors told her the girl would not survive more than 48 hours after initially suffering her injuries. “She’s a survivor,” Shepherd said of her daughter in previous interviews. “She continues to amaze me every day with what she can do.”
Shepherd has vowed to fight as long as it takes to see Destiny’s Law passed into reality because she hopes to ultimately save lives and lengthen the amount of prison time given to violent offenders. Destiny’s Law would automatically double the sentence given to criminals convicted of crimes of violence against children and the elderly, sexual offenses, and all types of physical violence. Also included are those convicted of causing permanent disabling harm, as suffered by Destiny at the hands of King.
Destiny’s Law was named House Bill 349 in late December of 2013, the second time to receive a bill number after the first attempt expired in 2010. Shepherd said the appropriate changes have been made to the language, and expects a new bill number to be assigned this week. Once given a number, the bill will be presented to the Criminal Justice Committee, where it must gain at least 50-percent approval before moving onto three other committees for approval. The last step will come in the form of final approval from the Supreme Court, if all goes as planned, according to Shepherd, who has worked closely with Clark County Prosecutor Andy Wilson on the previous bills.
The proposed law expired this time due to many factors, including the costs associated with its enforcement and an alleged “mishandling” of the prosecution of Destiny’s attacker. Sarah M. Schregardus, an attorney with the Ohio Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, presented her opposition to Destiny’s Law before the Ohio House of Representatives Judiciary Committee on September 30, 2014. In her report, Schregardus argues that Terrance King “could and should have been sentenced to 24 years in prison had the trial court not merged the three offenses of which he was convicted into one offense, based upon the ‘allied offenses’ merger doctrine.”
She also states that the State of Ohio already has the “mechanisms” in-place to order longer sentences for violent offenders, which is the primary goal of Destiny’s Law. The report states that King was found guilty by a jury of two counts of child endangering and one count of felonious assault—all of which are second-degree felonies with an eight-year maximum sentence, which could have been served consecutively. It also says that “the prosecutor, under the mistaken legal opinion that he could only proceed to sentence on one of the three counts, elected to proceed on the second count and have the remaining counts merge. However, the law did not require charges of Felonious Assault and Child Endangering to merge then, nor does it do so today.”
Shepherd said she believed it failed because of the money it would cost to enforce the law’s requirements. “Some people in the State House didn’t agree because Destiny’s Law would cost the prison 2.3 million dollars (per) year, but how can you put a price tag on a child’s life?” Shepherd wrote on Destiny’s Law’s Facebook page.
Schregardus’ report to the Judiciary Committee in September claimed that a bill similar to Destiny’s Law was introduced ten years ago but expired, as it was predicted to cost more than $3.3 million annually due to the process of proving “permanent” disablement as well as the inherent costs of housing prisoners for longer amounts of time.
