After seven years of advocacy, the efforts of Hillsdale’s Rosemarie D’Alessandro have paid off in Trenton. Gov. Chris Christie signed Joan’s Bill into law on Friday, July 21.
Joan’s Law states that a person convicted of the murder of a minor under the age of 18 in the course of the commission of a sex crime will serve life imprisonment without the option of parole. An initial version of Joan’s Law was signed in 1997 by Gov. Christine Todd Whitman. This version had a tighter scope, mandating life in prison for those who molest and murder children under age 14.
New York adopted Joan’s Law in 2004, and a federal version was signed by President Bill Clinton.
Joan’s Law was named after D’Alessandro’s daughter, who was infamously murdered in Hillsdale in 1973. Joan, 7 years old at the time, was delivering Girl Scout Cookies to a neighbor —employed as a teacher in New York — when he sexually molested and murdered her.
Although D’Alessandro has concentrated for decades on advocacy work, she often says Joan is the one leading the fight for child safety.
Since Joan’s Law is not retroactive, it cannot be applied to her case. Her killer has been up for parole several times, prompting the D’Alessandro family to campaign to keep him behind bars. The newly-signed law will prevent families from having to go through the appeals process like the D’Alessandros.
“[Offenders] will die in prison; therefore we will not have to worry about other children being killed,” D’Alessandro said at a press conference following the initial passage of Joan’s Law in 1997. “And then … none of the families will have to go through the appeals like we have to go through.”
The seven-year journey to expand Joan’s Law has rallied support from local assembly members along the way. D’Alessandro brought Robert Auth (R-Old Tappan) on board five years ago, and he became a primary sponsor of the bill. Joan’s Law also received bipartisan support from sponsors Valerie Vainieri Huttle (D-Englewood), Holly Schepisi (R-River Vale), Gordon Johnson (D-Englewood) and Gerald Cardinale (R-Demarest), among others.
Before being signed by Christie, Joan’s Bill was unanimously passed in the New Jersey General Assembly, sent to two Senate committees and passed by both Houses of the Senate by a vote of 36-1. The dissenting vote came from Atlantic County’s Jim Whelan, who told NJ.com that while he felt Joan’s killer should serve life imprisonment, he could not be certain that every future convict should meet the same fate.
Although the chapter of expanding the scope of Joan’s Law closed when Christie’s pen met paper, D’Alessandro said her work is far from over. She already has plans moving forward with Joan’s Joy, the memorial foundation she set up in honor of her daughter. D’Alessandro said that through her foundation, she hopes to see more child safety programs implemented in schools.
She said she will also focus on consulting with other child safety advocates and helping survivors. In fact, she met with someone last week to discuss the process of advocating for a bill to become law. She planned to tell the woman — whose granddaughter was murdered — to “never stop … you have to keep on persevering.”
The next chapter for D’Alessandro will be the Joan’s Joy Child Safety Fun Fest on Saturday, Sept. 23, an event for families promoting child safety and education. The event will be held at the Joan Angela D’Alessandro White Butterfly Sculpture and Garden in Hillsdale, next to the train station. At the garden rests a sculpture engraved with every child safety law Joan’s legacy has helped create. D’Alessandro said she left a space in the statue in hopes of engraving the new version of Joan’s Law, and at the event, the addition will be unveiled.