Kentucky | Jayden’s Law would expand child abuse penalties, create homicide charge

SB 134 would expand enhanced penalties for child abuse to all victims under 18

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Kentucky lawmakers are discussing tougher penalties for people who abuse children.

The bill — Jayden’s Law — comes after the death of 10-year-old Jayden Spicer from Breathitt County.

Spicer was was reported missing in August and after nearly a weeklong search, his body was found.

State Senator Brandon Smith, R - Hazard, remembers the search.

“ I truly believed. I can promise you, I thought I was going to find him," Smith said.

Spicer’s mother, Felicia Gross, was charged with his murder last summer.

Felicia Gross is charged with manslaughter and abuse of a corpse related to the death of her 10-year-old son, Jayden Spicer.

Gross had been convicted of endangering the welfare of a minor years before.

"We want to make sure that people understand that I can't stop you doing, you know, hurting children. But in Kentucky, you're going to pay the heaviest penalty we can put on you to stop it," Smith said.

Jayden’s Law would terminate parental rights after severe abuse if parents were convicted.

The bill would name a new crime, child abuse homicide, and the penalty could be a death sentence.

It passed through committee Thursday morning despite some concerns about the death penalty.

“I'm just not a proponent of death penalty. I don't mind, if you want to give the person a life since. Although I don't think nothing would have prevented this woman because of her mental illness, and her lack of capacity for killing her child. So I don't know how this death penalty provision is going to stop people like her from killing their children," said State Sen. Reggie Thomas, D - Lexington.

The bill now heads to the full Senate.

Currently, enhanced penalties for child abuse in Kentucky apply only when children are 12 and under.

Jayden’s Law would expand enhanced penalties for child abuse to all victims under 18.

Source: spectrumnews1.com, Juliet Gahan, March 13, 2026

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but by the punishments that the good have inflicted."

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