Aftermath and Legacy
Polly Klaas's body was cremated and her ashes spread over the Pacific Ocean by her family.
In the wake of the murder, Polly's father, Marc Klaas, became a child advocate and established the KlaasKids Foundation. He has made himself available to parents of kidnapped children, and has appeared frequently on Larry King Live, CNN Headline News, and Nancy Grace.
Five years after Polly Klaas's murder, a performing arts center was named in her honor in Petaluma.
The story of Polly Klaas's kidnapping and the manhunt for Richard Allen Davis was depicted in episode 1, season 1 of The FBI Files documentary show, titled "Polly Klaas: Kidnapped" (which premiered October 20, 1998).
In the wake of the murder, politicians in California and other U.S. states supported three strikes laws, and California's Three Strikes act was signed into law on March 8, 1994.
In 2004, Klaas's paternal grandfather, writer Joe Klaas, who was best known for having co-authored a book about missing aviator Amelia Earhart, endorsed California Proposition 66 to "fix the flaw in the law". His son, Marc, opposed Proposition 66.
Read more about this topic: Murder Of Polly Klaas
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