[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 104 (Tuesday, August 2, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: August 2, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                        THE DEATH OF MEGAN KANKA

  (Mr. SMITH of New Jersey asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, young Megan Kanka, a 7-year-old 
girl from Hamilton, NJ, disappeared near her home on Friday of last 
week. A massive search followed, and on Saturday evening, July 30, 
police located Megan's lifeless body in a Mercer County park.
  Deputy Assistant Prosecutor Kathryn Flicker told a New Jersey court 
this week that Megan's confessed killer lured her into his house on 
Friday by offering to show her his new puppy. Ms. Flicker said that the 
killer pulled the girl into his room, strangled her with a belt, 
sexually assaulted her, and that the little girl subsequently died of 
the strangulation injuries.
  Mr. Speaker, the killer had been convicted twice for violent, sexual 
crimes against children in the early 1980's. He was released from 
prison in 1988, after serving 6 years of a 10-year sentence. He shared 
a house in Megan's neighborhood with two other men who had previous 
records of sex crimes against children.
  Megan's parents and our entire community--especially those who are 
parents of small children--are outraged that there could be a home with 
not one, not two, but three persons with previous sexual assault 
records and that no one in the neighborhood was aware of this. As a 
father of four young children, I share the bitterness, the sorrow, the 
anger, and the frustration these parents feel.
  Mr. Speaker, our society is dangerous for small children. As many of 
my colleagues are aware, I have lead the effort to pass--and enforce--
tough laws to crack down on child pornography, precisely because I 
believe it leads to diabolical crimes such as the incident that just 
occurred in my county.
  But we need to take it a step further. We need to throw these people 
who prey on our children into jail for 30, 40, 50 years and--if I had 
my way--life imprisonment with no parole. We must do away with early 
release and require these felons to serve their full sentences, with no 
exceptions. And when they are released, there must be full notification 
of the local police department and the communities where these 
dangerous ex-cons take up residence.
  As a parent, I believe I have a right to know that a person who has 
moved in next door has a previous record of violent crimes against 
children. If Megan Kanka's parents had known about their violent 
neighbors, they would never have allowed her to play near the house 
across the street. She certainly would have been prohibited from going 
into the killer's house to ``see his new puppy dog.'' And Megan would 
be alive today.
  Mr. Speaker, I understand we will begin consideration of the 
conference report on the omnibus anticrime bill tomorrow, and this 
incident will be weighing heavily on my mind as we begin the debate on 
this important legislation. On July 13, I joined with the overwhelming 
majority of my colleagues in voting to instruct the House conferees to 
include language in this legislation that would require local police 
departments to be notified about the presence of ex-cons who served 
time for crimes against children, and to authorize these police 
departments to disclose this information to residents of the affected 
community. This is a good start, but we need to make the law tougher 
and establish community notification as an explicit requirement.
  In the next few days I plan to introduce legislation that would 
require community notification. I know my bill faces an uphill fight. 
But the memory of Megan Kanka, the extreme agony her parents and family 
must now endure, and the prevention of tragedies like this in the 
future demands no less than full disclosure to communities when sexual 
predators are released back into our communities.
  May God bless and comfort the Kanka family during this horrible 
ordeal.

                          ____________________