Submitted
Indiana native Nikki Sterling has tirelessly campaigned for changes to be made in Indiana laws to regulate charitable bail funds ever since the murder of her son, Dylan McGinnis, this past October by an individual who had been bailed out by The Bail Project.
In January, Sterling provided gut-wrenching testimony before the Indiana House of Representatives and separately to the State Senate. House Bill 1300 passed both houses in late February and was signed into law Wednesday by Governor Eric Holcomb.
Upon passage of HB 1300, Nikki Sterling offered the following statement:
“I am extremely pleased and grateful that Indiana House Bill 1300 was passed by the legislature and signed into law by Governor Holcomb.
“Since the senseless murder of my son, Dylan, this past October, I vowed to do everything in my power to save other families from the unbearable and preventable pain of losing a loved one in the manner in which I lost my son. In the process, I hoped to carry on Dylan’s legacy, which was all about helping others. I am very grateful to the men and women of the Indiana legislature who put the real victims of violent crime first.
“I wish to offer special thanks to Representatives Peggy Mayfield and Donna Schaibley, and Senators Aaron Freeman, Jack Sandlin and Michael Young who fought for this bill. From the bottom of my heart, I will never forget their dedication to public safety and to the memory of Dylan and other victims and their families.”
Sterling had worked for the passage of a bill that would prevent charitable bail funds from bailing out offenders charged with a violent crime or with a record of previous convictions of violent crime. The Senate introduced a bill (Senate Bill 8) addressing those issues in January. The House of Representatives’ version, HB 1300, was passed by both houses earlier this month.
The attention Sterling has brought to the problems concerning unregulated charitable bail funds through the senseless murder of her son was instrumental in HB 1300’s passage.