Oklahoma Charges Woman's Drug Use Killed Fetus

[Book Lover]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1895&ncid=1895&e=11&u=/nm/20040909/us_nm/crime_mother_dc


Prosecutors said they filed first-degree murder charges against Theresa Hernandez late on Wednesday. Police arrested Hernandez after she gave birth to a dead boy at an Oklahoma City hospital in April. A doctor attending the birth told police the mother and baby tested positive for methamphetamine and ruled the death a homicide.

...

Oklahoma County District Attorney Wes Lane said: "We've been wanting to do this with a number of people. This has been needing to happen for a long time."


The state law under which Hernandez is charged allows for murder charges to be filed if an individual's actions bring about the death of a fetus when it is considered viable, which in the state of Oklahoma is 24 weeks into a pregnancy. Hernandez's pregnancy was in its 32nd week.


Prosecutors said a jury also has the option of considering second-degree murder charges against Hernandez. A second-degree murder conviction carries a sentence of between 10 years to life in prison. If convicted of first-degree murder, Hernandez could spend the rest of her life in prison.

[DrWeird]

1. Jesus Christ.

Better arrest Barbara, she gave her kid Fetal Alcohol Syndrome.

[Liberal Veteran]

2. Soon every stillbirth/miscarriage will prompt a criminal investigation.

Sad.

[Mandate My Ass]

3. She's an addict

I could see depraved indifference or some such charge but first-degree murder?? C'mon.

[Crunchy Frog]

4. I wonder how many

pregnant women with substance abuse problems will now avoid prenatal care and give birth on their own outside of hospitals for fear of the same thing happening to them. How many more babies will die because of this?

And it is a very slippery slope. Unfortunately, viable fetuses do die in utero for a variety of reasons, and there is now a precedent for this type of tragedy to turn into a legal nightmare for whomever it happens to.

I find this absolutely apalling. Welcome to the Pregnancy Police State.

[Mandate My Ass]

5. The DA sounds like a real pit bull

"We've been wanting to do this with a number of people. This has been needing to happen for a long time."

I think Mr. Lane had better go back to criminal law 101:

first degree murder
n. although it varies from state to state, it is generally a killing which is deliberate and premeditated (planned, after lying in wait, by poison or as part of a scheme), in conjunction with felonies such as rape, burglary, arson, or involving multiple deaths, the killing of certain types of people (such as a child, a police officer, a prison guard, a fellow prisoner), or certain weapons, particularly a gun.

The only thing this woman was premeditating was getting high.

[MountainLaurel]

7. But at the same time

Will Dow Chemical face charges when a woman miscarries because the chemical plant she lives downstream from has been knowingly dumping poisons in the local watershed for years?

Or is that just god's will?

:eyes:

[Mandate My Ass]

8. Excellent point, ML

The number one cause of death to pregnant women in the US is homicide by the fetus's father. We have a serious domestic violence issue in this country which goes largely unnoticed and unaddressed.

I'd give my eye teeth to hear a DA get that rabid about prosecuting a wife-beating murderer. I think my teeth are safe.

[scaredamurikan]

9. Domestic violence happens among homosexuals too

But I bet this DA doesn't give a rats ass.

[Crunchy Frog]

11. No, the woman will probably be

prosecuted for negligent homicide for drinking tapwater rather than bottled water.

Nothing is ever the fault of a major corporatation. How many prosecutions were there after Bhopal?

[Eloriel]

18. If they're gonna do this, they'd goddamned better open up

the treatment facilities for poor women. It does NO good to "tell" addicted women they're going to be in trouble if they use during their pregnancies if they don't have viable options for getting off the stuff.

OTOH, this isn't about "fairness," is it?

[One_Life_To_Give]

6. Will jury convict?

Is there any chance that a jury will convict on first degree murder?

Sure it's right to protect the unborn, to a point. But there should be some kind of reasonableness involved here.

[Old and In the Way]

10. Here we go, down the slippery slope...wheeeeeeeeee

What's next folks in the land of unintended consequences? Miscarriages linked to smoking? How about alcohol? Is that now manslaughter? Will spontaneous abortions require the DA to investigate?

When will the government require daily pregnancy testing , just to make sure that they know the status of every women's uterus? After all, a few cells constitutes a human being in bizarro world.

[Crunchy Frog]

19. They tried doing something like that

in Romania under Coucescu(sp). All women who were of reproductive age and didn't have at least 4 kids were subjected to forced frequent GYN exams and investigated if they weren't getting pregnant.

I'm really looking foreward to living under totalitarianism.

[Bandit]

22. Yes tobacco products...The Nation's greatest killer

Over four hundred thousand people a year die from tobacco related causes. Very few die from drug use, less than three thousand a year. Big disconnect here.

[zanana]

23. And they say they don't want to outlaw birth control.

Just like they say they're not racists and that they don't "want" war.

[tom_paine]

12. They are some crazy Nazi fuckers, aren't they?

This woman's fetus was property of the Vaterland.

It was as if she had killed a full-grown member of the Bushler Youth, a crime for which there is no excuse and no reprieve.

[Hubert Flottz]

13. What about the people who cause air and water pollution?

They kill too!

[skygazer]

14. How about the parents

Who smoke around their kids? Are we going to start prosecuting them for child endangerment?

Nah, probably only the women who smoke while they're pregnant.

[Wilber_Stool]

15. I wonder if he was waiting

to find a woman too poor to mount an adequate defense. Or maybe the others had been taking prescription drugs.

[Hubert Flottz]

16. Email this link to the jury!

Ask them to put the Bush family on trial next!

http://www.uksociety.org/us_crimes_against-humanity_1.htm

[Christof]

17. What the hell?

The baby wasn't even born yet before it died. And she gets charged with murder??? How about people who have stillborn or miscarried fetuses? Will they go on trial?

Jesus fucking Christ! Someone needs to stop these Nazis before it's too late!!!

[Nikia]

20. This is horrible

A lot of women have stillbirths for a variety of reasons, many not related to negligent behavior on her part. For a woman who wanted her child, an investigation after this event would be rather traumatic. Drug use during pregnancy is certainly a bad idea and often is harmful to the fetus, but the fetus would not have necessarily died from drug use. It isn't like taking methamphetimines is a popular way to give oneself a late term abortion. Even if she was charged in the death, which I don't think she should be, I don't see how it could be anything more than manslaughter. It was not her intention to kill her baby by using drugs.

[AnnInLa]

21. Pro-Lifers have been pushing this

for a very long time now. To prove murder, or to manslaughter, the victim must be a person, therefore, unborns are all persons. It undermines Roe vs Wade, and would probably be overturned on appeal. Watch Planned Parenthood, NOW and NARAL get very involved in this. However, if bu$h is re-elected, and new Supreme Court appointees are made, all bets are off, and women are relegated to the dark ages again.