(LEX 18) — A Kentucky true crime author's push for stronger child abuse laws has prompted state lawmakers to begin drafting legislation following the death of 10-year-old Jayden Spicer of Breathitt County.
Joe Clark reached out to Senator Brandon Smith after Jayden's mother confessed to giving the boy sleeping medication, which she believes caused his death from a medical emergency. According to the arrest citation, Jayden was found buried in a plastic tote.
"I've always felt close to the little guy because I looked for him so hard," Smith said. The child was initially reported as missing for more than a week before his body was found. This story needed to be told, and I think I was chosen for whatever reason, by whatever deities you might want to believe in."
Neither Clark nor Smith knew Jayden personally, but both feel compelled to ensure the 10-year-old's name lives on through the proposed "Jayden's Law."
"It may actually save some lives, and that's ultimately our goal," Clark said.
Clark identified three critical gaps in Kentucky's current child protection laws that need to be addressed. First, Kentucky's law currently protects only children under age 12 from capital sentences under Kimberly's Law. Second, convicted child abusers can still petition the family court for custody. Third, Jayden's mother was initially charged with second-degree manslaughter, which carries only a 5 to 10-year sentence for killing a child.
"I've been in office for almost 30 years, and I've never had anybody hand me something like this," Smith said about Clark's proposal.
To address these issues, both men are pushing for expanded capital punishment aggravators to cover all children under 18, the creation of a "murder by abuse of a child" charge, and upgrading aggravated criminal abuse of a child to a Class A felony.
"How many more children are we going to lose to violence because of weak laws?" Clark said. "We have to stand up for our kids. Otherwise, if we don't in some of these situations like Jayden, nobody's going to stand up for them."
Smith expressed his commitment to making Kentucky a deterrent for child abusers.
"I want Kentucky to be a worry zone. I want if you're somebody that's perpetrating this stuff on a child, I literally want you looking over your shoulder for me," Smith said.
The case has been under investigation since September, and Smith confirmed that Clark's initiative got the ball rolling this week to draft the proposed legislation.
