Young and full of fight

Not many seventeen year olds get the chance to testify before congress, but childhood sexual assault victim Amie Zyla got her chance this week. In her home state of Wisconsin, Amie and her family have been leading a fight to reform sexual predator laws to protect children from repeat offenders. Now that the state law is in place, this young girl is taking her fight to Washington to try to get similar federal legislation in place. (Side note: It will be interesting to see how they classify this bill as being related to interstate commerce.) Unfortunately, Amie has some all too real first hand experience on the subject.

"We cannot sit back and allow kids to continue to be hurt, said 17-year-old Amie Zyla, who became a sexual assault victim at 8.

The Waukesha girl recommended listing convicted juvenile sex offenders on registries similar to those states and counties compile for adults.

Amie, her father Mark Zyla and supporters, took their fight to the state Legislature in January after seeing 23-year-old Joshua Wade, the man convicted of assaulting her nine years ago, on local news as a suspect in a similar crime.

At 14, Wade was convicted in juvenile court of assaulting and threatening Amie. The conviction required Wade's registration with the police department as a sex offender.

In January, Wade was accused of assaulting and enticing children to his apartment, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. He admitted videotaping dozens of them in his shower, the paper said, and he is to be sentenced in August. He faces up to 70 years in prison.

Amie, reading from a written statement, told the subcommittee she "keeps reliving the nightmare" of her abuse.

"At this very moment, somewhere in this country, a child's heart is being stolen. He or she is young, afraid, confused and feeling dirty," Amie said. "That child is being terrorized by the most horrible kind of criminal. It happens every day. And it still hurts me deeply to hear that another kid is experiencing the same kind of pain that I did at 8 years old."

I really get sick reading stories like this, but it's important. Nobody else ever seems to agree with me, but people like Joshua Wade should be subject to the death penalty.