Amy's Law (Georgia)
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Amy's Law is a
Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...
state
law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior, with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been variously described as a science and as the ar ...
passed in response to outrage generated when a twelve-year-old boy convicted of
murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse committed with the necessary Intention (criminal law), intention as defined by the law in a specific jurisd ...
ing Amy Yates was sentenced to two years in juvenile prison, the maximum penalty allowed for minors in Georgia at the time.
Unanimously Unanimity is agreement by all people in a given situation. Groups may consider unanimous decisions as a sign of social, political or procedural agreement, solidarity, and unity. Unanimity may be assumed explicitly after a unanimous vote or impli ...
passed by the Georgia Senate in 2006, Amy's Law permits sentencing juveniles to
incarceration Imprisonment or incarceration is the restraint of a person's liberty for any cause whatsoever, whether by authority of the government, or by a person acting without such authority. In the latter case it is considered " false imprisonment". Impri ...
until age 21 if convicted of murder.


The case

On April 26, 2004, eight-year-old Amy Yates went missing while riding her bike around her
trailer park A trailer park, caravan park, mobile home park, mobile home community or manufactured home community is a temporary or permanent area for mobile homes and travel trailers. Advantages include low cost compared to other housing, and quick and e ...
in
Carrollton, Georgia Carrollton is a city in and the county seat of Carroll County, Georgia, United States. It is within western Georgia, about 45 miles (72 km) west of Atlanta near the Alabama state line, and is included in the Atlanta metropolitan area. It is ...
. Her body was found later that evening, at the bottom of a nearby hill, and the heavy bruising on her chest and neck areas indicated that she had been
strangled Strangling or strangulation is compression of the neck that may lead to unconsciousness or death by causing an increasingly hypoxic state in the brain by restricting the flow of oxygen through the trachea. Fatal strangulation typically occurs ...
to death. The day after Amy was found, police summoned a few boys from Amy's neighborhood, including Johnathon Adams, for questioning. Without a parent or lawyer present, Adams was
interrogated Interrogation (also called questioning) is interviewing as commonly employed by law enforcement officers, military personnel, intelligence agencies, organized crime syndicates, and terrorist organizations with the goal of eliciting useful inf ...
for more than two and a half hours, during which time he confessed to accidentally killing Amy. When the police allowed Adams' parents to speak with him after his confession, however, Adams retracted the confession. Despite accusations of police
coercion Coercion involves compelling a party to act in an involuntary manner through the use of threats, including threats to use force against that party. It involves a set of forceful actions which violate the free will of an individual in order to i ...
, a judge ruled that Adams' statement could be used as evidence in court. Adams was held in juvenile detention until his murder conviction in 2005, at which point he was moved to a rehabilitation center. Nearly two years after the crime, Chris Gossett, a mentally disabled teenager, confessed to killing Amy, though Gossett later retracted his statement. As of October 2006, Gossett was not charged in connection to the Yates case. Despite resistance from police and the
prosecution A prosecutor is a legal representative of the prosecution in states with either the adversarial system, which is adopted in common law, or inquisitorial system, which is adopted in Civil law (legal system), civil law. The prosecution is the ...
, who claimed they got it right the first time, both a
grand jury A grand jury is a jury empowered by law to conduct legal proceedings, investigate potential criminal conduct, and determine whether criminal charges should be brought. A grand jury may subpoena physical evidence or a person to testify. A grand ju ...
and a judge investigating the case eventually ruled to
exonerate Exoneration occurs when the conviction for a crime is reversed, either through demonstration of innocence, a flaw in the conviction, or otherwise. Attempts to exonerate individuals are particularly controversial in death penalty cases, especial ...
Adams and
indict An indictment ( ) is a formal accusation that a person has committed a crime. In jurisdictions that use the concept of felonies, the most serious criminal offense is a felony; jurisdictions that do not use that concept often use that of an indi ...
Gossett on
manslaughter Manslaughter is a common law legal term for homicide considered by law as less culpable than murder. The distinction between murder and manslaughter is sometimes said to have first been made by the ancient Athenian lawmaker Draco in the 7th ce ...
charges. However, the charges against Gossett were formally dropped in 2010.''Murder victim's sister commits suicide'', The Newnan Times-Herald, September 7, 2013
Thomas Yates, the victim's father who originally championed Adams' guilt and lobbied for stricter sentences against minors convicted of murder, later criticized the way the police and prosecution had handled the case. In an interview, Yates stated that " e case was botched from day one. All the valuable evidence that could have been gathered was lost in the beginning. Our hopes of ever getting justice for our daughter — I don’t see any hope for that.” As of July 2017, the case remains unsolved.


See also

*
American juvenile justice system The American juvenile justice system is the primary system used to handle minor (law), minors who are convicted of criminal offenses. The system is composed of a federal and many separate state, territorial, and local jurisdictions, with states ...
* Comparative juvenile criminal law *
False confession A false confession is an admission of guilt for a crime which the individual did not commit. Although such confessions seem counterintuitive, they can be made voluntarily, perhaps to protect a third party, or induced through coercive interrogatio ...
*
Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act The Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act of 1974 (JJDPA) is a United States federal law providing formula grants to states that follow a series of federal protections on the care and treatment of youth in the juvenile justice and crim ...
*
Official Code of Georgia Annotated The ''Official Code of Georgia Annotated'' or ''OCGA'' is the compendium of all laws in the state of Georgia. Like other state codes in the United States, its Judicial interpretation, legal interpretation is subject to the U.S. Constitution, th ...


References

{{reflist Juvenile law U.S. state criminal legislation