GOVERNOR PROPOSES TOUGHER PENALTIES FOR MURDER OF A CHILD (Tamiqua’s Law Mandates Life Without Parole for Killers of Young Children)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Governor George E. Pataki today announced that he has introduced legislation that would mandate life without parole as the minimum sentence for violent felons who murder a child under 15 years of age while in the process of committing a sexual offense, robbery, burglary, kidnaping or arson. The bill is titled Tamiqua’s Law after 11 year-old Tamiqua Gutierrez, who was found raped and murdered in the hallway of her Bronx apartment building on May 8, 2001. The murder of Tamiqua Gutierrez was a heartbreaking, despicable and cowardly