The terror that Mary Lynn Witherspoon must have felt when she saw the face of her stalker as he waited inside her Charleston home haunts her family as it must anyone who has read our accounts of her murder more than a year ago. It was a murder that our criminal justice system should have been able to prevent. That's why the General Assembly should pass a measure being called "Mary Lynn's Law" that would give stalking victims far more reassurance that they will be protected from such psychopaths as her deranged killer.

A report this week by staff writer Glenn Smith provided more horrifying details of the events that led to Ms. Witherspoon's murder and told of the determination of her sister, Jackie Olsen, to save other victims from a similar fate.

"She had done everything she could to protect herself short of selling her house and moving somewhere. But his was the last face she saw. Thinking about that and the fear that must have overcome her, that has just about devastated us," Ms. Olsen told our reporter.

State Rep. Murrell Smith of Sumter, who represents Ms. Olsen's district, tells us she contacted him about the need to close gaps in state laws aimed at protecting victims such as her sister. Chairman of the House Judiciary's Criminal Laws subcommittee, Rep. Smith crafted a bill that, among other changes, would prevent someone already on probation from being eligible for release to the mental health court. That court is designed primarily to oversee outpatient treatment for non-violent offenders.

Ms. Witherspoon was strangled by Edmonds Tennent Brown IV, who had been diagnosed with a bipolar disorder, within four days of his release by that court. Among the many breakdowns was a failed effort, through an automated victim-alert system, to notify her of Brown's whereabouts, not to mention a mistake in a written notification message, which arrived at her home after her murder.

It strains credulity that the system could have released a stalker who was so obsessed that he previously had broken into Ms. Witherspoon's laundry room to steal her clothes, including her underwear. Our report this week revealed that when Brown left the Charleston County Jail in November 2003, he had a "to-do" list that read: "take care of MLW" and put her "on ice." Our reporter's account detailed how Brown then set out to murder Ms. Witherspoon, left her floating in a bathtub, and tried to assume her identity, by wearing her clothes, buying a wig and changing his driver's license address to hers. There were some terrifying similarities to the movie "Psycho." How could the system have missed the signs of someone so insane?

Among the changes proposed in the Smith bill is a requirement for a psychiatric evaluation within 10 days of anyone arrested on stalking or harassment charges. He believes concerns raised by the Department of Mental Health to that provision can be addressed. Rather than a strict 10-day requirement, he plans to amend that provision to require that every reasonable effort be made to meet that 10-day deadline.

That change is one of several that Rep. Smith tells us grew out of a hearing on the legislation earlier this week. Concerns about the proposed elimination of the automated notification system also will be addressed, he said. If three attempts are made unsuccessfully, he said, then a personal visit would be required.

Rep. Smith feels strongly about the need to prohibit the release to the mental health court of someone already on probation on another charge. Had that been in place, Brown would not have been transferred to that court since he was on probation on another charge. Rep. Smith also believes it is critical that there be a requirement that incident reports be provided to judges setting bond for stalking suspects. For example, he said, a judge hearing that Brown was charged with burglary wouldn't necessarily know without the incident report that the theft involved Ms. Witherspoon's underwear.

Proposed changes in the Smith bill will be considered this morning by his subcommittee. He said he is trying to forge a compromise that will address legitimate concerns while protecting the victims. The goal, he said, is to prevent repetition of the errors that led to Mary Lynn Witherspoon's death. Charleston Sen. Glenn McConnell has introduced a different bill in the Senate that he tells us has the same goals.

If this legislation isn't a priority of every member of the General Assembly, it ought to be. This session shouldn't end without the passage of a strong "Mary Lynn's Law."