When Randi Shepherd reached out to me concerning an update on Destiny’s Law, I hoped that this was going to be the moment when she told me that the bill was becoming one step closer to reality, but alas, her news was quite the contrary.

Shepherd is the mother of the soon-to-be eleven year-old Destiny Shepherd--the inspiration behind her mother’s fight to pass Destiny’s Law. Destiny was just 16 months-old in 2006 when she was nearly beaten to death by her mother’s former boyfriend Terrence King. Shepherd returned home that day from a quick errand at the store to find her driveway full of police cruisers and squads, as her baby girl fought for her life after what King had done to her.

Shepherd said in our past interviews that the doctors told her right away that they did not expect her daughter to survive her injuries, as King had inflicted severe injuries to the toddler’s head and brain. Obviously, and miraculously, Shepherd says, her daughter beat the odds and survived, and although she still faces some daily struggles, Destiny’s progress never ceases to impress her mother.

“She amazes me, she really does,” Shepherd said of Destiny, adding that her school teachers this year have stressed to her how much change and growth they’ve seen in the young girl compared to this time last year.

While Destiny continues to grow and improve each day, her abuser now walks free, as he was released in October of 2014 despite being given the maximum sentence for his violence towards Destiny in 2006. King did eight years in prison for nearly killing the girl after she woke up crying from a nap, prompting Shepherd’s quest to see Destiny’s Law passed into reality, which would impose mandatory sentences on those convicted of extreme violence against another human being.

After the bill “ran out of time” last year before it was put to a vote, Shepherd was forced to “basically start all over again” in moving the law through the Ohio House and Senate.

“This is easily the fourth or fifth time I’ve had to start all over again,” she said of the renewed 2016 campaign for Destiny’s Law.

As initially proposed, Destiny’s Law would impose a mandatory double-sentence for those convicted of physical violence against another, meaning that the offender would receive their initial sentence as well as an additional sentence doubling that amount of time. As proposed, the bill would cover those of any age who have fallen victim to extreme physical violence, yet Shepherd said the bill is being held up because one Senator believes that the age group of victims should be confined to persons five years of age and under. She said she’s been told that Senator John Eklund is pushing for the bill to affect a younger demographic, and that a group of supporters is anticipated to approach Eklund on Shepherd’s behalf.

Shepherd said she hopes to hear some sort of response in April, as she only has until December 31 of 2016 to see the bill signed into law before it expires and she is forced to start all over once more.

“It’s making me fight harder,” Shepherd said of the regular roadblocks and opposition she receives in the process. Be it technical language debates or disagreements between judges over the mandatory sentence, Shepherd has grown quite accustomed to the setbacks, viewing them as just minor challenges to a grander fight that she hopes eventually will protect people like Destiny in seeing that their attackers are put in jail for much longer periods of time.

Shepherd has not changed her attitude one bit since the first time I interviewed her in 2014, when she essentially vowed to be a thorn in the side of those who stand in her way or those who deliberately stall the bill’s approval--making call after call to those who would try to avoid her, as she holds officials accountable for their promises.

The New Carlisle News will provide updates on Destiny’s Law’s progress as they become available.