It's over...for now

As I mentioned in my previous post, I had been working on a feature story for KOMU about a piece of legislation that would increase the penalty for shaken baby convictions. Currently, law classifies the act as a Class C felony, which means offenders receive a maximum seven-year sentence. This legislation would change that to an unclassified felony and recommend a 20-year sentence. 

I'd never been so nervous for a story to air, this was, after all, my baby. But, all things considered, I think it went quite well. 

Monday, the bill came before the Senate Judiciary Committee. No one was there to testify against it, but considering we're in the second half of the legislative session, I wasn't shocked. There was also no vote on the bill because there were only two committee members present, one of which was presenting the bill, Sen. Kurt Schaefer (R-Columbia). All of the people who were in my story were there to testify, and afterwards they approached me to express their frustration with the current status of the bill. I told them, from my experience, at this point in the session, there is no chance the bill will go through by this process, but the opportunity to add is as an amendment may still arise. 

It meant a lot to me that after the story aired, the family told me how happy they were with the finished product, and no one sent emails criticizing it. I was confident with my work, but was unsure how the family would receive it, but they loved it. Win, win. 

There's much more to the story, which you can read in the web version. 

As I said earlier, I did go to the SJC hearing yesterday, and plan to stick with this story throughout the remainder of this session. Stay tuned for updates, because it ain't over yet, folks. 

To sticking with it,

Ag