SALT LAKE CITY (AP) A Utah legislator has introduced a bill he says would close a loophole that allowed for one of Elizabeth Smart's kidnappers to be released from prison.
Rep. Ken Ivory of West Jordan says the loophole in a state law allowed 72-year-old Wanda Barzee to be released last week after serving her maximum 15-year sentence despite the fact she refused mental-health treatment while in custody.
Ivory told The Salt Lake Tribune on Friday the bill he filed in advance of January's legislative session would remove credit for time served if the inmate pleaded guilty and mentally ill, but didn't accept treatment.
Barzee helped her husband, Brian David Mitchell, abduct Smart at knifepoint in 2002 when she was 14.
Police say Mitchell raped her almost daily for nine months before she was rescued in Sandy in March 2003.