Elizabeth Smart Goes To Washington
Utah Kidnap Victim Backs Bill Toughening Sex Predator Laws
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Play CBS Video Video Ed Smart Reacts To 'No Trial' Ed Smart, whose daughter Elizabeth was kidnapped in 2002, shared his reaction with The Early Show about the judge's ruling that the abductor was mentally incompetent to stand trial.
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Elizabeth Smart at Washington news conference Wednesday (CBS/The Early Show)
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Elizabeth Smart poses with her parents, Lois and Ed, outside their Salt Lake City home in March, 2003, shortly after they were reunited (AP Photo/Deseret News, Tom Smart)
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Timeline The Smart Case In June of 2002 teenager Elizabeth Smart was reported kidnapped from her parents' home, one in a frightening string of child abductions that summer. Hers is a story with a rare happy ending.
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Interactive Answered Prayers See pictures from Elizabeth Smart's homecoming and learn details of her nine-month ordeal and the search to find her.
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Interactive Out Of Sight: Missing Kids Get the facts on kidnappings, learn predator profiles and check out resources for locating missing children.
The Utah teen, who was kidnapped from her Salt Lake City home almost four years ago and held nine months by two suspects still awaiting trial, announced her support of a measure pending in the Senate that would strengthen laws meant to protect children from predators.
"We are here today because we care about people and what happens to others," Smart told a news conference. "I don't want to see others go through what I had to go through."
"More lives can be saved and potential tragedies avoided. We must do all we can to prevent trauma. I would ask and call on both the Congress and Senate to quickly pass this bill on behalf of the next victim."
Smart's father, Ed Smart, has been to Washington several times trying to persuade lawmakers to make toughen laws designed to protect kids from kidnapping or other forms of abuse, but this was Smart's initial foray along those lines.
According to Salt Lake City's Deseret Morning News, the Children's Safety and Violent Crimes Reduction Act, which has already passed the House, "ensures the sex offender registry is current and is verified regularly and requires states to notify each other when a registered offender moves to another state. The bill also requires background checks for teachers, extends sex offender registration requirements for crimes committed juvenile sex offenders and creates a national sex offender public Web site."
Robbie Callaway, of the National Centers for Missing and Exploited Children, called the bill "the strongest piece of child-protection legislation in the past 24 years."
He told reporters sex offenders "ought to start to get real scared. …You need to be
running, you need to be hiding. You need to get in and register, 'cause if you don't, you're not going to be able to duck it. You're going to go to jail. You're going to go to prison."
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