Posted on 01/02/2015 5:01:29 PM PST by Morgana
Antonio Pena believed in the right to choose – his own right, anyway. In 1999, Pena chose to drive his fist into Jaclyn Kurr’s abdomen. Kurr reminded her boyfriend that she was pregnant with quadruplets and, after a second punch, warned him not to do it again. He doesn’t seem to have taken her warning too seriously, though.
That probably changed when she stabbed him.
At her manslaughter trial, Kurr argued that killing Pena was justified by the need to protect their children. The judge didn’t agree. Although Michigan law does permit the use of deadly force to defend the lives of others, Judge Richard Lyon Lamb declared that “there are no others” in this case. Because the fetuses “would have only been sixteen or seventeen weeks in gestation at the time of the stabbing,” Judge Lamb felt that none of them could be considered “a living human being.” Jaclyn Kurr was subsequently convicted and given a five- to twenty-five-year prison sentence.
Kurr’s conviction got reversed on appeal, with the court ruling that a mother can defend a child in her womb even when her own life isn’t in danger. But while that’s now the law in Michigan, it’s not true in a lot of other states. As a result, women can be forced to choose between defending their children and going to prison.
The scenario isn’t just a hypothetical one, as pregnant women are frequently targeted for violence. That often happens when they resist a partner’s demand to have an abortion, and attackers can quickly escalate from throwing punches to using guns, knives, explosives, gasoline, and blunt objects. It’s not surprising then that the CDC lists homicide as a leading cause of death during pregnancy.
In 2008, Americans United for Life drafted a model bill called the Pregnant Women’s Protection Act. The legislation specifies that a woman may use whatever force is needed to protect her preborn baby from criminal violence. Earlier this year, a version of it was introduced by South Carolina state senator Katrina Shealy.
Although Sen. Shealy’s effort was unsuccessful, we need to make it clear that this issue isn’t going away. After all, the right to defend your child is among the most basic. Expectant moms shouldn’t be punished for exercising it.
” Judge Richard Lyon Lamb declared that “there are no others” in this case.”
Bet the judge thinks fist applied abortion is great.
Another idiot judge.
If she was a “White Hispanic” probably could’ve got away with it...
As a side note to this thread, please consider the following.
The Pregnant Woman’s Protection Act, although it didn’t pass in SC, is appropriately based on 10th Amendment-protected state powers imo.
On the other hand, the states have never delegated to the feds, expressly via the Constitution, the specific power to regulate such issues.
why her lawyer didn’t argue for the several cases where disparity of force was on her side, she should sue that lawyer for terrible representation.
generally females have disparity of force unless there are unusual circumstances. further she’s pregnant and physically encumbered/limited, which would also count towards disparity of force.
Now, wait a minute, he did punch her in the stomach twice, didn’t he. She could say that she was protecting herself from attack. If someone attacked me, and I was armed with a knife or a gun, I would be using those weapons to make him stop hurting me. Now, for this judge, I would bet my extra pair of socks that he is a liberal.
i hope someon punches that idiot judge in the gut a few times. And then if he defends himself, see him sent to prison for 5 to 25 years.
What a POS.
This is hype for an unecessary law. We already have the right if self defense.
A picture of the American voter after the GOP gets finished.
She should be able to kill him for punching her repeatedly. That’s everyone’s right.
Not sure that i believe this ‘fact’ “It’s not surprising then that the CDC lists homicide as a leading cause of death during pregnancy.”
Looks like a ‘violence against women’ article hiding behind a ‘right to life’ coaim.
Yes good point but who knows how that may vary from state to state.
it’s a legal concept that exists in all 50 states. been around a long time.
Even if she wasn’t pregnant, she had the right to defend herself. Any man ever started beating me, he would have run a real risk of not seeing another sunrise.
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