Victims Before Influencers: Modernize Son of Sam Laws for the Digital Era

No victim’s family should have to watch the person who killed their loved one turn that crime into attention, followers, donations, sponsorships, merchandise, paid interviews, documentaries, social media income, or other personal benefits.

"Son of Sam" laws were first created in the late 1970s after public outrage that serial killer David Berkowitz could profit from his crimes. At the time, lawmakers were primarily concerned about book deals, movie rights, interviews, and paid media contracts.

Today, criminals are able to profit long before a book or movie deal is ever signed. For notoriety-seeking offenders, attention itself is the ultimate currency. Convicted violent offenders can easily convert public attention into paid clicks, livestream gifts, merchandise, paid appearances, and crowdfunding—often hiding these profits behind family members, fan pages, LLCs, or other loopholes. 
 
Our current laws are outdated because they were written long before TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, podcasts, and affiliate links were even thought about.

This petition calls on lawmakers to create a modern, constitutionally sound law that prevents convicted violent offenders — especially those convicted of homicide or crimes causing serious bodily injury — from turning crime-based notoriety into personal profit, perks, business opportunities, or indirect financial gain.

Plus, when a convicted violent offender is released on parole or supervised release, courts and parole boards should have clear authority to impose narrow, individualized conditions that prevent that person from using monetized social media, influencer platforms, crowdfunding, sponsorships, merchandise, paid content, or proxy accounts to profit from the notoriety of their crime.

This is especially important in high-publicity homicide cases where the offender’s public attention is directly connected to the crime and creates a foreseeable risk that the offender may financially benefit from victim trauma.

A modernized law should:

• Require disclosure of monetized social media accounts, paid interviews, sponsorships, documentaries, podcasts, merchandise, affiliate links, online fundraisers, appearance fees, and business arrangements connected to crime-based notoriety
• Allow courts and parole boards to impose case-specific restrictions on monetized social media features during parole or supervised release
• Prohibit offenders under supervision from receiving sponsorships, platform payouts, merchandise profits, subscription income, livestream gifts, paid appearances, or crowdfunding benefits tied to the notoriety of the covered offense
• Require any qualifying proceeds to be disclosed and, when appropriate, preserved, escrowed, garnished, or redirected toward restitution, victim compensation, or civil judgments
• Prevent offenders from hiding benefits through family members, fan pages, trusts, LLCs, management companies, third-party accounts, or supporter pages
• Include noncash benefits such as paid travel, housing, gifts, services, free merchandise, sponsored experiences, or other things of value
• Apply narrowly to murder, attempted murder, manslaughter, kidnapping resulting in serious injury or death, and other serious violent offenses

Because violent crime should not become a pathway to fame, money, influence, or opportunity.

Public attention should never become a reward for homicide. Notoriety should not become a business model.

Victims’ families deserve protection from being retraumatized while offenders, or those acting on their behalf, benefit from the public attention created by violent crime.

Modern platforms have changed how people become famous and how they make money. Our laws must catch up.

We urge Ohio lawmakers to build on HB 505 and pass a broader modernized Son of Sam law for the digital era — one that protects victims, closes crowdfunding and digital monetization loopholes, prevents indirect profiteering, and ensures that crime-based notoriety cannot be turned into personal gain.

We hope Ohio will lead the way, and that other states will follow.

Victims before influencers. Justice before profit.

In honor of Dominic Russo.

This petition was authored by Silver Lining of Hope, Inc. in direct collaboration with the family of Dominic Russo.