Story highlights Danny Cevallos: Depraved have long sought fame for criminal acts

Particularly in the Internet age, we need laws to deter and criminalize the broadcasting of crimes, Cevallos says

Danny Cevallos is a CNN legal analyst and an attorney practicing in the areas of personal injury, wrongful conviction and criminal defense in New York, Pennsylvania, and the US Virgin Islands. The opinions expressed in this commentary are his.

(CNN) A manhunt continues for Steve Stephens, who is suspected of shooting dead 74-year-old Robert Godwin on Sunday near Cleveland, and then posting a video of the killing to Facebook.

People are calling it a sad statement about social media. No question: it is.

Given that live broadcast via social media is here to stay, with Facebook as just the beginning, there's really no easy way to prevent the next fame-hungry criminal from simulcasting a senseless act of violence.

But there is a way to do something about it: Use the law to deter this sort of depraved predator. We can criminalize the criminal's act of broadcasting his crime.

The sad truth is killers have long sought the media spotlight — including live television — well before the advent of Facebook, the iPhone, or even the Internet.