(Columbia) May 19, 2005 - Wednesday, the
Senate gave key approval to a bill that strengthens
anti-stalking laws in South Carolina. The measure would
require police to give judges incident reports on
stalking cases before bail is set. It also adds an
aggravated stalking charge with a 10-year penalty.
The bill is known as "Mary Lynn's Law."
Mary Lynn Witherspoon was a popular teacher in
Charleston. Her sister Jackie Olsen says Edmonds Tennet
Brown became unusually fascinated with her, "Sometimes
he would just show up in her backyard, or on her front
porch, or on her front step."
Jackie lives in Sumter. She told WIS Mary Lynn became
terrified when Brown broke into her laundry room, twice,
"He saw her through the kitchen window and he made a
point of making sure she saw him and he was stuffing
clothes in a pillowcase."
After three months in jail, a mental health court
released Brown and when that happens an electronic phone
system is supposed to notify victims. Jackie says
something went wrong, "It said he had been transferred
to the South Carolina Department of Corrections, where,
instead of begin transferred, had been released."
Mary Lynn's family said she had no way of knowing
Brown was out. Two days later, in 2003, investigators
say he came to her house, "She was strangled at the
front door of her home, and then he took the body
upstairs. He left the body upstairs and went downstairs
and cooked himself an egg breakfast."
Out of that tragedy, came "Mary Lynn's Law."
Brown pleaded guilty to Mary Lynn's murder. He's
serving a life sentence.
Investigators believe Brown was so obsessed with Mary
Lynn that he wanted to become her. When they
arrested him, they say he was wearing her clothes and
carrying her keys. They say he also had his drivers
license changed to show her address as his home.
Jackie believe the new bill's rules would have saved
the beloved sister and mother, "I've done this for Mary
Lynn, and I feel like after all that happened to her, it
was my way of saying, I'm not letting this go without
making sure something is done right."
The bill also eliminated a ban on automated systems
notifying stalking victims of a suspect's release. The
bill now requires law enforcement to make personal
visits if those systems fail three times to reach a
victim.
By Jennifer
Miskewicz
Updated 10:39pm by BrettWitt with
AP
