Megan's Law

On July 29, 1994, a 7-year-old New Jersey girl, Megan Kanka, was violently sexually assaulted and murdered by a twice-convicted sex offender who had moved in across the street from her family. The suspect, Jesse Timmendequas, lived with two other sex offenders in Hamilton Township, a small middleclass New Jersey town. He had been released from a prison/treatment center for compulsive, repetitive sex offenders. Timmendequas had constantly refused treatment during his incarceration. He had originally been sentenced to 7 1/2 years; however; he was released after only 6 years because he had earned good-time credits. This case generated public outrage.

During the trial, Megan's mother related how on a Friday evening in mid-July 1994, every parent's nightmare became a reality. Her husband and son were out shopping, and Megan and her sister were on a couch watching television when their mother lay down in her bedroom for a few moments to rest. When she got up, her oldest daughter told her that Megan had left the house to visit a friend. Megan was never again seen alive. Her body was recovered in a nearby park. She had been raped, sodomized, and strangled. The detective who worked on the case testified that Timmendequas talked about how he had watched Megan for some time before the murder and of his attraction to young girls. Timmendequas claimed he lured Megan into his house by offering to show her his new puppy. The girl screamed and tried to run away when he fondled her. Timmendequas put a belt around her neck and a plastic bag over her head and suffocated her. He dumped her body in a nearby park.

At the time of Megan's murder, Timmendequas was not on parole. He had been released from prison after completing his sentence. Neither his therapist, the prison treatment staff, the institution superintendent, nor the State Board of Prison Parole believed he was ready to return to society. However, they had no authority to prevent his release. Timmendequas had received a sentence of 7 1/2 years for his second sex offense, the result of a plea bargain entered into by the prosecuting attorney and agreed to by a judge. Plea bargaining is a common occurrence in cases of child molestation and sexual assault and is primarily entered into to keep the victim from experiencing undue trauma during the trial process. If Timmendequas had been tried and convicted for his offenses, he could have been incarcerated for 30 years.

Megan's parents had no idea that the new neighbor living across the street from them posed such a dangerous threat to their young children. At the time, there were no provisions for notifying local law enforcement or the public concerning a sex offender's criminal history and presence in a neighborhood. Megan's parents channeled their grief into a nationwide movement to require notification of communities when sex offenders move in. In New Jersey, more than 1,000 people showed up for a vigil in a local park, and more than 1,500 petitions to the governor were collected insisting on legislation that would avert recurrence of a similar tragedy. Within 2 months, the New Jersey legislature responded to public pressure by enacting a package of nine sex offender statutes that have been collectively termed “Megan's Law.”

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