Quote:
Originally Posted by tiger8mush
What if the child died at night after being put to bed and wasn't discovered till the next day? What if the parent/caregiver said she went in to check on the kid in the middle of night and thought the kid was sleeping even though it was determined the child died several hours before?
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Maybe I should have been clearer. I left my statement open. I said within 1 hour, but I didn't mean within 1 hour of death, I meant within 1 hour of discovery.
As far as your example above, time of death can be proven by the coroner. So if a child died in their sleep and is found at 9:00 in the morning (which is reasonable), the coroner can prove how long the child has been dead (along with the cause of death). So if the coroner says the child has been dead for 8 hours, we could assume the child died at approx 1:00am. If the coroner says the child has been dead for 36 hours, then there is a problem.
I think you're examples are a little far fetched. The law is intended to prevent cover-ups as in the Caylee case, not to punish the parents/care givers of a child that dies of natural death.
I agree...it should just be common sense to report a child's death within one hour of discovery. But it wasn't in this case.
Edited to add: I guess the whole point behind this is that the prosecution couldn't prove how Caylee died. Had the authorities been notified right away (as the intentions of this law), cause of death wouldn't have been an issue. Whether she was murdered or it was an accident, it was definitley covered up. This law can't prevent cover ups, but it can certainly make them punishable by not reporting the death right away.