HILLSDALE, N.J.—Rosemarie D’Alessandro is lending her considerable voice to efforts to see New York adopt a version of New Jersey’s Joan’s Law—extending the ban on parole for someone who murders a child under age 14 during a sexual attack—as Paula’s Law.
After that, 48 states to go.
D’Alessandro—who emerged as an activist for children’s safety and justice after her daughter, Joan, was killed in 1973 at the hands of a neighbor to whom she’d been delivering Girl Scout cookies—wants Paula’s Law to apply in New York where the victim is under 18.
Joan’s Law says that a person convicted of the murder of a minor under 18 in the course of the commission of a sex crime will serve life imprisonment without the option of parole.
Joan was 7 when she was killed. The killer left her body outside Harriman State Park in Stony Point, and she was discovered that Easter Sunday.
New Jersey’s Joan’s Law was signed in 1997. President Bill Clinton signed a federal version in 1998. New York’s Joan’s Law was signed in 2004.
D’Alessandro was moved to call for New York to name its version of Joan’s Law in memory of Paula Bohovesky, a 16-year-old girl who was sexually assaulted and killed in a Pearl River alley by two men in 1980.
The high school junior had been walking home from her after-school job at the library. The killers had seen her from the bar where they’d been drinking and set off after her.
D’Alessandro told Pascack Press the idea for Paula’s Law, extending the threshold age of the victim from 14 to 18 in the parole ban, came to her after learning that one of Bohovesky’s killers, Richard LaBarbera, won parole in June.
News reports said LaBarbera, released from prison July 8, was back in jail less than three weeks later on a parole violation.
The laws wouldn’t apply to either Joan’s or Paula’s killers. But, D’Alessandro said, “It can help others.”
She’d discussed the idea with a New York reporter, and then New York State Sen. David Carlucci, D-New City, contacted her to follow her lead.
On July 17, Carlucci introduced Paula’s Law. A New York State Assembly version of the bill is underway.
Carlucci also said he aims to reform the parole process, including expanding the parole board from its current three members, increasing the number of commissioners at hearings, and shortening their terms.
D’Alessandro and her supporters want such parole bans on the books in all 50 states.
The foundation, the book, and the movement
In the decades since Joan’s killing, D’Alessandro, through her Joan Angela D’Alessandro Memorial Foundation, or Joan’s Joy, has worked fiercely (but positively, she adds) to pass laws to raise awareness and protect children.
A new book and documentary detail the case and its legacy. “The Killer Across the Table: Unlocking the Secrets of Serial Killers and Predators With the FBI’s Original Mindhunter,” by John E. Douglas and Mark Olshaker, features nine chapters about Joan’s case and legacy.
Douglas interviewed Joan’s murderer in 1998 and helped bolster the case to keep him in prison. Olshaker is author of four novels and producer of the Emmy-nominated “The Mind of a Serial Killer.”
D’Alessandro explained that repeated parole hearings (a prisoner in New York can try for parole every two years) traumatizes families.
On social media, D’Alessandro received enthusiastic support for her initiative.
One wrote, “I applaud you, Rosemarie D’Alessandro. You are the most distinguished and honorable advocate for our children. You have moved mountains to change our laws … and continue to be a tireless crusader and leader for positive change. Our children live in a safer world because of you. Thank you.”
Another wrote, “So thankful for the expansion of Joan’s Law. Rosemarie, you are a true blessing and making such a difference. God bless you, my dear.”
Still another wrote: “You are amazing, Rosemarie. You have taken the tragic loss of your beautiful daughter Joan and have worked tirelessly to be sure that no other parent would have to endure the thought of their child’s killer being paroled in both New Jersey and now New York.”
Speaking to Pascack Press about her work just after she received a New Jersey State Federation of Woman’s Clubs Women of Achievement Award in May, she lauded the volunteers, past and present, who make Joan’s Joy possible.
“And the donors, the tricky trays, that is all a part of the movement. They’re helping get my message out to where my vision is: to help the kids. There are thousands and thousands of people in the movement,” she said.
She added she wants to see child safety centers built in Elizabeth and Newark and elsewhere to help take children—so often sexually exploited—off the streets and give them opportunities to grow healthy and strong.
Asked what she hoped her audience took from her May award acceptance speech, she said, “Oh, if I can only make people understand: If they want to do something good how important their part is. I hope they can see, ‘I can do that.’”
For more information, visit http://joansjoy.org.