Megan's Law: A look back at how NJ became a model for federal legislation

Megan Kanka, a 7-year-old from Hamilton Township, was dead at the hands of a convicted sex offender, and Megan's Law, requiring police notify a community when a convicted offender moves to town, would soon be in place.

Megan was reported missing around 8 p.m. on Friday, July 29, 1994. Neighbors told authorities they saw Megan stopping by to talk with Jesse Timmendequas, a convicted sex offender who lived across the street from the girl. Timmendequas lived with a convicted child molester and another sex offender. Many neighbors were unaware three convicted child molesters lived on the street.

The search for Megan involved 500 police and firefighters and volunteers from Middlesex, Burlington and Monmouth counties and Bucks County, Pennsylvania. A helicopter search for Megan was also conducted by police, and bloodhounds were used to track her scent.

Megan's body was found around 7 p.m. Saturday, July 30, 1994, by township police, next to a portable toilet in a weeded area of Mercer County Park, located 3 miles from her home. Police said autopsy results revealed Megan died of "acute asphyxia due to mechanical strangulation."

Timmendequas, police said, was the last person to see Megan alive.

Prosecutors said Timmendequas signed a statement admitting to the crime. Deputy Assistant Prosecutor Kathryn Flicker said Timmendequas lured Megan into his house by offering to show her a puppy he had purchased recently. Timmendequas, Flicker said, pulled Megan into his room, strangled her with a belt, and then sexually assaulted her. Megan subsequently died of the strangulation injuries.

At the time of the killing, Mercer County Prosecutor Maryann Bielamowicz said no program to notify residents about sex offenders existed in the state.

That would change.

Megan's Law

Megan's father, Richard, endorsed the idea for legislation requiring neighborhood notification when sex offenders move into a community. And, by Tuesday, Aug. 2, 1994, it had already been nicknamed the "Megan law."

"I think the Megan law is a great law. I am just real upset it took something like this to get the Megan law," said Richard Kanka at the time.

Local heroes:Branchburg honors police officers for going beyond call of duty

"This was God's way of using Megan as a tool to make sure this never happens again," said Megan's mother, Maureen Kanka, at the time

On Tuesday, Aug. 2, 1994, at Veterans Park in Hamilton, at a rally originally planned as part of the "National Night Out" anti-crime campaign, thousands attended, bound together in grief and anger over Megan's murder. Many wore or carried pink ribbons in her memory.

Many attendees carried candles, but before night fell, a thunderstorm broke up the gathering.

"Light your candles on your porches and think of my little girl," Maureen Kanka told the crowd.

On Monday, Oct. 31, 1994, Gov. Christie Todd Whitman signed the first Megan's Law. On hand at the ceremonies were Richard and Maureen Kanka, as well as Ronald and Karen Wengert, mother of 6-year-old Amanda Wengert, who was killed on Sunday, March 6, 1994, in Manalapan. A 19-year-old neighbor who had been convicted of sexual offenses as a juvenile had been charged in the murder.

"You are truly, truly amazing people. You and your families have taken and turned the darkest in yours or any family's lives and turned them into a statewide, even nationwide campaign to protect children," Whitman told both couples. "Because of you, we are changing laws and we are hopefully going to save lives."

Jesse Timmendequas trial

Timmendequas went on trial on Monday, May 5, 1997, in a courthouse 5 miles from the Hamilton neighborhood where he lived across the street from the Kankas. He faced the death penalty if convicted of the murder.

Timmendequas was convicted on Friday, May 30, 1997, on all counts. The 12-member jury took only four-plus hours to convict him.

The penalty phase of the trial began on Monday, June 9, 1997. On Friday, June 20, 1997, after 10½ hours of deliberation, the jury — all of whom lived in Hunterdon County — voted in favor of the death penalty for Timmendequas.

"I'm a Christian, and for me it was hard to justify this verdict," said juror John Gorton, 38, of Clinton Township. "A lot of us were looking for something that would let us not give this sentence, but we didn't find it."

"It's definitely a life experience for me," said juror Paul Schermerhorn, 35, of Frenchtown. "And I know I made the right decision."

On Monday, Dec. 17, 2007, Gov. Jon S. Corzine signed legislation ending capital punishment in New Jersey, making the state the first to legislatively do so since the U.S. Supreme Court allowed states to restore the death penalty in 1976.

Timmendequas' sentence was commuted to life in prison without the possibility of parole. He was one of eight men in New Jersey whose sentences were commuted.

At the time of Timmendequas' commutation of sentence, Richard Kanka said he was still hopeful the man would not see old age.

This article was compiled using archived reports that appeared in the Courier News.

Brad Wadlow is a staff writer for MyCentralJersey.com. 

This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: Megan's Law: A look back at how NJ became model for US legislation