Legal Research in Action: Kaitlyn’s Law

With summer temperatures on the rise, it’s important to take extra precautions with your little ones. Over the past twenty years, many children have tragically lost their lives to the scorching heat that vehicles capture due to the negligence of caretakers or parents. Kaitlyn’s Law is named after the case of six-month-old Kaitlyn Russell who passed away after being trapped in a hot car for over two hours. While this is only a California state law, these things happen all over the country. Let’s look at three US cases where there have been similar occurrences.

In the summer of 2014 in Georgia, father and husband Justin Ross Harris returned to his vehicle to find his 2-year-old son Cooper deceased in the back seat.¹ Harris claimed that he unintentionally left him in the car and remembers dropping him off at daycare. Evidence showed that Cooper’s daycare was less than five minutes from Harris’ workplace and that he went about his morning differently from his usual routine. When Harris found his son, he called the police, who determined that Cooper’s death was a result of hyperthermia. Police at the scene attested that Harris’s behavior was unusually calm for someone who had just lost his child. Harris was later taken to the police station for further investigation and the case would ultimately be discussed in the Supreme Court of Georgia. During the investigation, the state found Harris guilty of having multiple extramarital sexual relationships with women, including minors. Considering the information presented, the jury was convinced that Harris had purposefully killed Cooper so that he could leave his wife and pursue his sexual affairs. Several indicators of Harris’s indifference led the judge to believe that Cooper’s death was planned. Harris was initially sentenced to thirty years in prison: twenty for murder with malicious intent, and ten for sexual exploitation of children. However, in 2022 Harris managed to get a new case and counsel that managed to overturn his original sentence. He is now set to be released from prison in 2026.

Defendant Harris claimed Forgotten Baby Syndrome,² in which a person forgets their baby in a vehicle due to a mental phenomenon. This isn’t uncommon for parents to experience, according to University of South Florida professor of psychology David Diamond.³ A psychologist who interviewed Harris during his court proceedings stated that Forgotten Baby Syndrome was unlikely given Harris's routine that morning. While Harris was denied such a diagnosis, Forgotten Baby Syndrome experienced by other parents has resulted in children mistakenly getting left behind in hot vehicles. This could be argued for the father of Luke Alexander Thompson in this next case.

In the spring of 2006, Adonis Ray Thompson of West Virginia fell asleep inside his home while his 2-year-old son Luke was still strapped in the car.⁴ Eight to ten hours later when Thompson woke up, he realized that he had left his son in the car and dialed the police. Luke unfortunately passed away from hyperthermia. Thompson explained that he hadn’t slept the night prior because he worked a double shift at his physically demanding job. Then he also had to evacuate his trailer home with Luke’s mother, Courtney E. Ferrell, due to flooding from heavy rains. When it was safe for them to return, Ferrell took a different car to her parents’ home to check on them while Thompson and Luke rode back home. Thompson claims that he went inside to change into dry clothes, purposefully leaving Luke in the car because he had a fever and didn’t want him to be exposed to the rain. Thompson said he passed out from exhaustion while he was in his home. When he later discovered his son, it was too late. Experts determined that Luke had reached a temperature of 107 degrees before tragically passing. Later in his court proceedings, the court ruled that Thompson was aware of his exhaustion in addition to being the only parent on site. Therefore, Luke’s death was foreseeable. The court sentenced Thompson to three to fifteen years in the penitentiary. 

Unlike the first case, Thompson seemed to make a genuine mistake where he overlooked the fact that he was the only parent on site and didn’t consider how exhausted he was. The argument of Thompson having Forgotten Baby Syndrome was not mentioned in the proceedings, but there is a possibility that he could have had it due to his exhaustion. In addition, according to the evidence presented, it didn’t seem like Thompson had a reason to let his son die on purpose.

The next and final case demonstrates that scorching heat doesn’t take long to heat up a car along with those inside of it.

This case follows two women who ran a daycare in New Mexico. On a day above 90 degrees in July 2017, defendants Sandi and Mary Taylor drove the daycare children in different vehicles to a nearby park for a picnic without the permission of the Children, Youth, & Families Department.⁴ When they returned to the daycare, one caretaker took a child inside to tend to their needs while a few children went inside along with the other caretaker. The two caretakers continued their job, each thinking that the other had unloaded the remaining children. Unbeknownst to them, two children remained in a hot vehicle. Sandi and Mary failed to conduct a headcount after their unauthorized trip and failed to maintain caregiver-to-child ratios. Around two hours and forty minutes later, Sandi went to her car where she would discover the children. Mary helped her get them out and attempted resuscitation, but unfortunately one of them had already passed. The other had a body temperature of 108.4 degrees, and paramedics would subsequently reveal that they had suffered a great deal of neurological issues. Both defendants were convicted of non-violent child neglect and child abuse resulting in Sandi getting a 30-year sentence and Mary a 36-year sentence. 

Unfortunately, even if a child manages to survive being locked in a hot car, it may result in lifelong neurological damage. These three cases provide insight on how long it takes- which is not much- for cars sitting out under the summer sun to heat up and affect those inside of it. Out of the three cases, the third had the shortest time from being trapped in the car until discovery. In the second case, experts determined that Luke passed away around three hours into being locked in the car. Despite intentions, these are examples of tragic events that could have been avoided if the responsible parties took extra precautions or acknowledged that they were the sole responsibility at the time. These are only a few examples of many that happen every year, but they are as important as any other case. 

Written by Andrea Larios, Intern at the Riverside County Law Library

References   

1. Harris v. State, 314 Ga. 238, 875 S.E.2d 659 (2022) 
2. Anselmi N, Montaldo S, Pomilla A, Maraone A. Bambini dimenticati in auto: dimensioni del fenomeno e nuove prospettive di ricerca [Forgotten Baby Syndrome: dimensions of the phenomenon and new research perspectives]. Riv Psichiatr. 2020 Mar-Apr;55(2):112-118. Italian. doi: 10.1708/3333.33026. PMID: 32202549.  
3. https://www.usf.edu/arts-sciences/departments/psychology/documents/david-diamond-research-on-why-parents-forget-children-in-hot-cars.pdf  
4. State v. Thompson, 220 W. Va. 246, 647 S.E.2d 526 (2007) 
5. State v. Taylor, 2021-NMSC-023, 491 P.3d 737