Many laws have been created because someone in history was either wrongly accused of

a crime, not given a fair trial, or even worse, they were murdered.

Take the Son of Sam Laws an example.

It was enacted when serial killer David Berkowitz sold the rights to his story.

The Son of Sam Law prohibits criminals from profiting commercially from their crimes.

Berkowitz might even be on today's list.

I can safely say that I don't have him on my half of the countdown, but looking at

some of the names I do have, the laws that were made in the aftermath of these crimes,

came too many years too late for the victims.

Hey all you weirdos, welcome to Crime Countdown, a Spotify original from Partcast.

I'm Ash and I'm Elena.

Every week we'll highlight ten fascinating stories of history's most engaging and unsettling

crimes, all picked by the Partcast Research Gods.

This episode were counting down the top ten crimes that changed laws.

So when I think of crimes that changed laws, my first two that come to mind are the Amber

Hagerman case and the creation of the Ember Alert.

Definitely.

It was like boom, Amber Alert.

In the James Bird and Matthew Shepard Bill, the one the creation of the Hate Crimes

Prevention Act immediately because we covered Matthew Shepard and James Bird on morbid.

We talked about that act being brought into law and honestly it's horrible that such

brutal and senseless crimes had to happen for these things to be created, but now hopefully

...