Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act: A Sketch Page: 3 of 6
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CRS-3
Adjustments in Federal Criminal Law. The Adam Walsh Child Protection and
Safety Act is focused, as its name implies, upon child protection and safety. Its efforts
involve the creation of new federal crimes, the enhancement of the penalties for
preexisting federal crimes, and the amendment of federal criminal procedure, among other
things. Many of these efforts are child-specific; some are more general. The new federal
crimes include the following.
" Murder in the course of a wider range of federal sex offenses.
" Internet date rape drug trafficking.
" Kidnaping that involves the use of interstate facilities.
" Child abuse in Indian country.
" Production of obscene material.
" Obscenity or pornography in Internet source codes.
" Child exploitation enterprises.
The amendments to federal criminal procedure are a bit more numerous and somewhat
more likely to implicate crimes in addition to those committed against children. Among
their number are:
" Random searches of sex offender registrants as a condition of probation
or supervised release.
" Expanded DNA collection from those facing federal charges or convicted
of any federal offense.
" Elimination of the statute of limitations for various sexual crimes or
crimes committed against a child.
" Participation of state crime victims in federal habeas proceedings.
" Study of the elimination of marital privileges in abuse cases.
" Preventive detention in cases involving a minor victim or a firearm.
" Compensation for guardians ad litem.
" Government control of evidence in pornography cases.
" Forfeiture procedures in obscenity, exploitation and pornography cases.
" Murder during course of various sex offenses as a felony murder
predicate.
" Civil commitment procedure for federal sex offenders.
The act's penalty enhancements are the most extensive of its amendments to federal
criminal law and procedure. It establishes new sentencing ranges for the federal crimes
of murder, kidnaping, maiming, or aggravated assault when the victim is a child. In the
case of murder, the penalty is imprisonment for any term of years not less than 30 years,
imprisonment for life, or death; in the case of kidnaping or maiming, imprisonment for
life or any term of years not less than 25 years; and in the case of aggravated assault,
imprisonment for life or any term of years not less than 10 years. While the new
minimums terms of imprisonment must yield to any otherwise applicable higher
mandatory minimum, the new maximum penalties trump any otherwise applicable
maximum. The provision has the effect of making capital offenses out of several federal
murder statutes that heretofore were punishable only by a term of imprisonment when the
victim is a child and when the misconduct involves the intentional killing of the victim
or a reckless, fatal act of violence. The act increases penalties for several other child
offenses including:
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Doyle, Charles. Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act: A Sketch, report, April 17, 2007; Washington D.C.. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc808028/m1/3/: accessed April 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.