Our Cause

On August 14th, 2012 my daughter Amelia Keown was killed on Hwy 411 in Maryville TN. She was hit head on by a man who was running from the police. He had a 9 page Tennessee criminal history with numerous felonies. Had the parole board not given him early release for a 2 week aggravated robbery crime spree he did in 2005, he still would have been in prison and my daughter would have been safe.

Our judges and parole boards need to sentence these criminals correctly and have them serve their time. Had he been served with Tennessee State Statute criminal penalties, he would still be in prison, not eligible for early release until 2015. Had the parole board looked at his record ( and they had to have) I can not understand how they let him out. This man died too, and this is not about him at this point. If he was out, how many others just like him are out? We have to stand together as citizens of Tennessee and demand safety on our roads for our families and children.

Amelia was an honor roll student, on the dance team, a member of HOSA with plans to become a nurse. She always helped anyone who needed it. She was just going home from school to get her pom poms for dance practice. This man was a career criminal, who in addition to his felonies, had numerous wrecks all with the same pattern. He never touched his brakes, he just hit people. And he said several times it was a “mechanical failure”. We have to do something because our State Government will NOT unless we make a stand.

Please help me pass Amelias Law so that her death is not in vain. Our community lost a beautiful bright girl that day who will never be able to show the world what she was capable of. I don’t want another family going through what I am going through now. This never should have happened, and I hold our State Government just as responsible as I do the man that killed her that day. My intent is to have the law changed in her name to include ANY felony which endangers the public.

The current 3 strikes your out law includes a specific list of felonies, however they did not include aggravated robbery, attempted robbery, or drugs which this man had numerous charges of all as well as fleeing the police several times and felony escape. In the eyes of Tennessee his crimes weren’t “bad” enough, and look at the cost of letting him out. Amelia lost her life, and no one else needs to because of something like this.