Karl Hindle writes today to say that Virginia Governor McDonnell signed HB2361 into law last week. This bill was drafted by the VA legislature based on a summary of international child abduction points gleaned from a variety of sources encountered over the last 8 years. Karl says Virginia is the first state in the country to enact a state international child abduction law. The new law provides for the lawful seizure and forfeiture of the assets of abductors and their accomplices involved in the international abduction of children. This applies whether children are abducted out of the US or into the Commonwealth of Virginia.
Karl Hindle is the father of a young daughter, Emily, who was born in the UK and taken by her American mother, Sheila Kay Fuith, to the US when Emily was 11 months old. Without Karl's knowledge or consent, Emily was put up for adoption, involving a convicted pedophile. All of this time Emily was denied medical treatment for her blindness. Emily is still wrongly held in the United States today. Karl has filed an application for certiorari with the United States Supreme Court, having lost his Hague Convention battle in the lower federal court system.
More details are available on Karl's Blog: Emily Rose Hindle here. Thank you Karl for the update.
Hello Karl, thank you for clarifying this. I wonder if New Jersey will be far behind, although New Jersey may have gotten there by case law in the Goldman case. Jeanne
Posted by: Jeanne M. Hannah | April 14, 2011 at 11:15 AM
Hi Jeanne-
Just a slight correction - VA is not the first state to enact an international child abduction law as there are others, notably California with the Synclair-Cannon law.
What I believe VA is the first to do is to enable legislation dealing with the seizure of abductors' assets and more notably, they are the first to tackle abductions into the US (VA) as opposed to simply addressing abductions out of the country (from VA).
Thanks,
Karl
Posted by: Karl Hindle | April 14, 2011 at 09:24 AM