Sarah’s Law was recently proposed by New York State Sen. Dean Murray and Sarah Goode’s family as legislation to prevent a convicted killer’s conviction from being erased if they die before an appeal is resolved.
“Passing Sarah’s Law would right a wrong and return a sense of justice for Sarah and her loved ones,” said Murray, eager to get it passed.
Sarah Goode, 21, was a mother, sister, and daughter from this hamlet, who was murdered on June 7, 2014. Goode’s car was discovered on Fire Avenue in Medford, just a short distance from where her body was found on Camden Court four days later. Her family searched day and night for her for four days.
In 2015, police arrested Dante Taylor, 20, from Mastic, on July 14, 2014, for Goode’s murder. Taylor, 19 at the time, pled not guilty to an indictment charge of murder in the first degree.
In 2016, Taylor was sentenced to life in prison without parole for the murder/rape of Goode, ending a two-year court drama with testimony chronicling a heinous, violent crime that shocked two communities and devastated a family. He stabbed her over 40 times.
In 2017, after a year in prison, Taylor, 22, died in an upstate New York hospital. His death was ruled a suicide.
Goode’s family hopes the law will prevent others like Taylor’s whose conviction was voided upon his death. Currently, under New York State Law, a conviction is vacated if a defendant dies while an appeal is pending. According to the family, the void essentially erases the legal finding of guilt.
According to Murray, the law was originally intended for tax evasion criminals where as part of their conviction, they would be required to still make retribution even after their death, causing the burden to fall on their family, who did not commit the crime.
“If that person died, it would not go away until it was fulfilled, and that was not fair for family members. So, I get the original intent. But it was not intended for cases like Taylor’s,” Murray said, explaining that at some point, some “smart” defense attorney used the loophole and it worked.
The law, he added, has already been overturned in Massachusetts, no longer allowing convicted murderers’ records to be wiped clean upon their death.
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